Has Wrexham’s Hollywood dream reached the glass ceiling of reality?
If you were to write a TV show designed to get Americans into ‘soccer’, it would not be too dissimilar to the story of Wrexham.
The forgotten club on the edge of nowhere, the underdog attempting to take on the big boys; Philadelphia-born co-owner Rob McElhenney compared the story to the city’s most famous son, Rocky.
The club defeated Apollo Creed in the form of promotion from the National League. Clubber Lang was a vanquished League Two and League One promotion was Ivan Drago.
But, much like the fifth instalment of Rocky was universally panned for well, not having any kind of plot, Wrexham themselves find the next stage of their story is missing a satisfactory ending.
The fairy-tale narrative of the Welsh club is that they put together a run of three consecutive promotions, becoming the first club to do so in English league history. A cynical/more realistic version of events is that Wrexham’s budget far outweighed the majority of their rivals.
The dream scenario would have been the final hurdle, reaching the Premier League, the only league that the majority of Americans had even heard of. But football cares little for how you would like your fairy-tale to end.
The Championship was always going to be the true test of Wrexham. If McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds could spend their way to success in the lower leagues, here they were coming up against clubs with far deeper pockets, far more pedigree in the league and far more experience in how to achieve promotions. Ten Championship owners have an estimated net worth of over $1bn; McElhenney and Reynolds’ is close to $500m.
But still, while not their fourth consecutive promotion, their first season back in the second division was a surprising success. They finished seventh, which would have been enough for the play-offs under the new model. They also finished ahead of fellow promoted side Birmingham, who were far more fancied going into the season.
But the difficult second season has arrived. On Friday night, the absence of Premier League football meant a bumper audience witnessed Wrexham’s 6-0 demolition at the hands of West Ham, a game that provided a reality check for where the club lies in the pecking order.
In front of the biggest crowd Wrexham had reportedly ever played in front of, West Ham picked off a disorganised and out-of-their-depth team.
If Jarrod Bowen, a player who clearly deserves to be in the Premier League, scored three of them, you could maybe write it off as moments of brilliance from a superior player, but all six of West Ham’s goals came from different players.
Wrexham conceded from set-pieces, they conceded from crosses, they conceded from quick passes in the box, they conceded on the counter, they conceded from a long ball over the top.
A lot of teams will be beaten by West Ham this year but the nature of that defeat suggests that Southampton, who Wrexham play next, will have similar joy. Middlesbrough too.
So far this season, Wrexham have one win from their seven matches and are 19th in the table. If the goal is to reach the Premier League, it is hard to argue – with all the available evidence – that Wrexham are among the eight best teams in the league.
The debrief has already begun and fingers are being pointed at the manager. Throughout Wrexham’s impressive rise, there has been one man at the helm, Phil Parkinson. He is the fourth-longest serving active manager in English league football having been at the club for over five years. He has undoubtedly been a success but has he now reached the limits of his expertise? If he were available, would any club from the top half of the Championship look to appoint him?
Parkinson can be rightly criticised for a failure to react in the trip to the London Stadium. He set up in a 5-4-1 in the hope of hitting West Ham on the counter but West Ham had the quality to pass their way through that. He made four substitutions on the 67th minute but the game was already lost by that point.
Wrexham find themselves in a position of having a manager who is the hero of their past but is maybe not fit for the future.
Plenty of other owners have been ruthless when it comes to their managers but call it loyalty, dedication or misguided romanticism, the Wrexham board are keen for Parkinson to stay.
The manager has not been helped by underwhelming recruitment in the last few transfer windows. Their biggest expenditure this summer was Sunderland goalkeeper Antony Patterson. He made just three saves in the Friday night game and saves under 60% of the shots he faces.
In general, there are just few players of real quality in a squad that has the oldest average age in the league. No player has more than two goal involvements after seven games. Wrexham are without Max Cleworth and Ben Sheaf due to injury, but the drop-off should not really be this large.
So what now? Sack the manager? Accept promotion is unlikely this season at least? Make it to January and splash the cash?
There is not an obvious answer but it is looking increasingly clear that Wrexham’s Hollywood story has met the glass ceiling of reality.
