Accrington Stanley boss Andy Holt’s tweet is full of Lancastrian sarcasm.
“Congratulations Ryan, I honestly don’t know how you did it! What an achievement. Good luck with your high notes,” it read.
He was responding to a celebratory post from Wrexham boss Ryan Reynolds following his side’s second successive promotion.
Holt is one of the most interesting figures in English football and his comments are as divisive as the team’s. Wrexham are the Marmite of English football – loved to hate by fans of other teams – and the controversy ended last weekend when they were promoted to League One alongside Stockport County A new level of intensity returns.
Congratulations Ryan, I honestly don’t know how you do it! Excellent results👏👏👏
Good luck with the high pitch ❤️👍 https://t.co/IidWw4KeX0
— Andy (@AndyhHolt) April 14, 2024
You could forgive Holt, a local businessman who made his fortune in the plastics industry and has invested heavily in his hometown club since taking charge in 2015, for his tongue-in-cheek reply to Reynolds. They are to be congratulated for this exquisitely crafted dig at Wrexham’s achievements, given their sizeable budget as a fourth tier club.
There’s also the fact that Holt has a history with Reynolds and Wrexham’s other Hollywood star co-owner Rob McElhenney.they don’t always agree On issues like streaming revenue and ticket prices. Maybe there’s something to be said for taking the moral high ground in times like this, taking a deep breath and rising above it. But that’s football – an industry that thrives on petty feuds.
Reynolds and McElhenney celebrated promotion to the National League a year ago (Jan Kruger/Getty Images)
Most neutrals are self-aware enough to admit to a degree of envy when they see what Wrexham have achieved since Reynolds and McElhenney took over in 2021.
As well as their investment, international profile and obvious respect for the North Wales club and the town they represent, the cast is hard not to like.They have self-aware banter, like when they tried to learn Welsh in the Welcome to Wrexham documentary series, and their witty social media posts Makes it harder for us to be skeptical of their intentions.
They face the public in a way that allows for accountability, bucking the trend of too many absent or elusive owners in the EFL. They displayed elegance at the Gresford Colliery Memorial, surprise charity donations and fan engagement. Big new international sponsors have arrived, including Expedia, TikTok and United Airlines, and the racecourse has big plans for new grandstands. On the pitch, they were clearly successful. Last season, manager Phil Parkinson racked up a record number of points en route to winning the National League title, lifting Wrexham out of the fifth tier of the English football pyramid after 15 years.
European and American fan culture Competitor
Now they have done it again, achieving back-to-back promotions for the first time in the club’s 160-year history, and once again using the ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ cameras. The series brought new fans and attention to the EFL, particularly from the United States, which in part led to record domestic and international television deals – worth £935 million ($1.2 billion) over five years, four Valued at £148m during the year.
So what’s not to like? What harm does the Wrexham story do to football?
If you ask most other fans in England and Wales, the answer is quite a bit. If you believed Wrexham was a story about beating all odds, this is where the bubble bursts.
Wrexham are not weaklings, at least not in the league. They face Blackburn Rovers, Sheffield United and Coventry City in the FA Cup, three teams who have been higher up the domestic football pyramid over the past two seasons and have a case to make. At a disadvantage in the FA Cup. But when a team has the most money in the division, they have an advantage over other teams. Wrexham are not the first club to use their financial muscle to move up the league. They won’t be the last.
Stockport have experienced a similar promotion from the National League and have one of the highest wages in League Two this season. Fleetwood Town, now an Old League One club, did the same thing in 2012 and 2014.
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Wrexham’s latest set of accounts covering the 2022-23 season shows their wage bill is £6.9m, with losses of £5.1m. Both numbers were 1) National League records and 2) higher than any Division II team that season, as well as most Division I teams. The amount of money being spent in the lower leagues is unprecedented and for comparison Accrington lost £785,000 during the same period when they were still in the third tier.
Stockport also celebrated promotion this weekend (Jess Hornby/Getty Images)
There’s no shame in spending big money, especially when it works and you’re earning as much as Wrexham earned last year (£10.5m – also more than any other team in the fifth tier National League or League Two many). More money helps attract better players, so league tables usually reflect each team’s spending. There is only cause for concern when a club has had a bad season or feels the constraints of the EFL’s Financial Fair Play rules (usually once they move into League Two).
Wrexham have given a lot to football but the gradual rise in wages in the lower leagues has been a serious concern for clubs trying to compete with much smaller profit margins.
Wrexham’s financial clout and subsequent easy progression into League Two is to be expected and may have to wait until they are crowned champions – or their owners run out of cash or enthusiasm for the project – Only then will we see what this growth is. These accounts are ironclad evidence: Wrexham is a good story, yes, but they are not fairy tales. This clip on CBS and the response perfectly summed up the extent of their differences.
“Wrexham and their TV show did as much for American football as Major League Soccer does now.” 🏴 Chase Chase Chase 🇺🇸
A (now) third tier football club from North Wales have completed back to back promotions and the staff at Morning Football couldn’t be happier 👏 pic.twitter.com/bFIy6G3Prq
— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) April 15, 2024
What infuriates many League One, League Two and National League fans is that while the story of a post-industrial town in trouble with an underperforming/downtrodden football club attracts global attention, the story applies to fans in many countries. You could swap Wrexham for Grimsby Town, Wigan Athletic, Hartlepool United, Newport County or Accrington. The significance of these clubs to their communities does not diminish just because there are no television cameras to show for it.
Perhaps this all says more about British fan culture than we’d like to admit.
A healthy stance in all of this is to sit somewhere in the middle. Every moment of admiration for what Wrexham are doing, a modicum of recognition of their wage bill, or some cynicism at the claim that they are “the only club like it in the world” should provide a perfectly of experienced prospects.
But what about balance? Do you have a healthy attitude toward what other teams in the department are doing? Is there anything other than disdain for new ideas, new fans and the overwhelming media attention given to clubs other than your own? You won’t find that in the EFL. You’d be better off trying Disney+.
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(Top photo: Charlotte Tattersall/Getty Images)
