Saints deliver dose of reality for the Wrexham fairytale

Bankrolled by actors Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds, who bought the club after McElhenney got hooked on documentary Sunderland ‘Til I Die, they are either a modern-day fairytale or a cynical content machine. A sleeping giant restored or a documentary first and football team second.

Football loves a purity test. The murkier the sport becomes, the more we strive to find the moments that are genuine. No one wants to believe that the sport we spend our time consuming has become an investment vehicle for savvy celebrities or private-equity suits.

There are few football fans across the pyramid who would not dream of what has happened to Wrexham happening to their club. But as they outspend everyone in their path, why wouldn’t you dislike them?

For the Wrexham fans who made the eight-hour, 441-mile round trip to St Mary’s, this was a pinch-me moment. Fourteen years prior to their opening-day fixture against Southampton, their first at this level since 2003, those same fans raised £100,000 in 24 hours to keep the club afloat. Before McElhenney and Reynolds, they were staring down relegation to regional football.

It has been hard to judge what Wrexham might make of life in the Championship, the division which eats its young. Here everyone is spending to try to grasp an elusive slice of the Premier League pie, and while Wrexham will be by no means minnows this season, there are teams with plenty of financial muscle to flex themselves.

Southampton are the perfect demonstration of what they will be up against. With a reported wage bill four times as big as the newly promoted club, they have the benefits that come with a squad that was playing top-flight football last season, albeit terribly, and parachute payments. Goals in the 90th and 96th minutes from Ryan Manning and Jack Stephens secured Southampton a 2-1 win, proving that, despite what certain executives might wish, you can’t script football. Welcome to Wrexham? Welcome to the Championship.

Rob and Ryan were not here to see their side fail to hold out for a win, but one wonders if they were secretly a bit pleased about the result from wherever they were watching. Some more jeopardy around this team might be a good thing. “Plucky” Wrexham struggled to make the underdog narrative stick over the past two seasons.

After all, it is a curated image, demonstrated by the complete lack of sentimentality shown throughout their journey. The face of the club under the new ownership, Paul Mullin, was nowhere to be seen yesterday, having been loaned to Wigan in League One. He has never got the chance to make a Championship appearance.

Instead, they continue to prioritise winning now at whatever level they are at. One of the pieces of advice that Reynolds and McElhenney were given when they bought the club was to buy from the league they want to be in. Kieffer Moore, Conor Coady and Danny Ward all played Premier League football last season. Liberato Cacace spent the past three-and-a-half seasons in Serie A.

It might be the kind of recruitment which sees us saying “Remember him?”, but that is the luxury that comes from not having to worry about developing players. That is what money gets you.

But despite all of that, there are still eight players in the squad who were part of the team in the National League. Max Cleworth was making his Championship debut having joined Wrexham at the age of 11. Even among the cynicism that comes with their success, moments remain that encapsulate what football should be about.

When teams like Sheffield Wednesday and Morecambe are starting this season on the brink of financial ruin, it is hard to begrudge the success that has come Wrexham’s way. For a side to be making history, not off the back of a regime with a dubious human rights record or an oligarch’s ill-gotten gains, but instead from a lighthearted and entertaining documentary, feels refreshing.

For Reynolds and McElhenney, it has done wonders for their profile and their bank balances, with more to come given their purchase of teams in Mexico and Colombia. But for a Welsh city in the fifth tier of football, it did change everything.

Maybe that is all modern football has left to offer us. There are no more fairytales. But there are still some pretty good stories.

Photograph by Dan Mullan/Getty Images