‘Serious guys’ – Ryan Reynolds & Rob McElhenney credited for ‘incredible uplift’ at Wrexham that has left Phil Parkinson ‘pinching himself’

Since the Hollywood duo of Reynolds and McElhenney took over as the club’s co-owners in 2020, Wrexham have experienced incredible success on the pitch. They earned back-to-back promotions from the National League and League Two and will now compete in English football’s third tier for the first time in over two decades.
Red Dragons manager Parkinson was all praise for his bosses as he credited the actors for ‘uplifting’ the stature of the club in the last four years. The Welsh club are spending heavily this summer before competing in League One as they have already drafted six new players and are working to get a couple of deals done.

Speaking to the Leader, Parkinson said: “Honestly, you’ve got to come over and get a feel for the place, because, you know, Rob and Ryan brought Wrexham and I think many people from the outside, sort of ‘wow, Hollywood actors buying a football club, is that for real?’ But they are for real. They’re serious guys and they wanted to build a football club and bring success to the town and see how it uplifts an area and, honestly, the uplift in Wrexham has been incredible.

“The people of Wrexham are fantastic people and they’ve had some tough times with the football club over many years. Nearly going out of business, really down on their luck… and to see this uplift in the team has just transformed the area and it’s almost like you have to pinch yourselves sometimes to see if is it happening to Wrexham. The most important part of any football club is the supporters and they are going to enjoy trips to some great venues this season.”

He added: “There were a lot of them on the tour in America and the support we get over there is incredible. We get tourists coming all the time to The Racecourse, having a look around. Get a lot from many, many different countries paying us visits and it’s a really exciting area to be in and my job is to keep the team progressing and there’s nothing better in Wrexham if the team’s won and the town is full, all the bars are full and everybody’s celebrating the wins together.

“My job is to try and keep that success going and we’re all very excited to start the season. We can’t wait to begin and begin to write another chapter in this amazing journey.”
After a successful pre-season where they remained unbeaten in five friendly matches – including one against Chelsea – Parkinson’s men will kick off the new season against Wycombe Wanderers on Saturday at home.