Wrexham AFC, located in the Welsh city of the same name, could do something unprecedented in the 2024-25 season: Get promoted for the third season in a row. If they succeed, they would be promoted to the EFL Championship League, one level below the Premier League. But the now-famous team, which has been owned by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney since 2020, faces a dilemma, as we see in the fourth season opener of Welcome To Wrexham.
Opening Shot: Scenes of Wrexham AFC’s final game in the 2023-24 season, which earned them a promotion from English Football League (EFL) League One to EFL League Two.
The Gist: The dilemma that the team, and Reynolds and McIlhenney face: Do they cool their financial jets in order to settle at the League One level for a few years, perhaps stalling the momentum the team has built since the two actors bought the team, or go all in and make the push for that third promotion in a row? We see a number of fan-driven podcasts speculate what’s the better path for the team.
Reynolds and McElhenney do make a move in anticipation to making that push, though, bringing Michael Williamson as the team’s new CEO. Williamson is an American, but he comes with sterling credentials, having run the massive football club Inter Milan for a number of years. He knows what it will take for Wrexham to handle promotion, including the need for more seating at their home stadium, the Racecourse, a larger staff and more robust youth and women’s football programs. He also is aware of how strongly tied the team is to the city, and he doesn’t want to lose the passion of the fanbase that has followed the team through all of it’s ups and downs over the decades.
In the first episode, we see both the men’s and women’s teams do North American preseason tours, the men faring much better than the fledgling women’s team. We also hear from the usual group of fans that the show has followed since the beginning, having to balance their fandom with the city’s development boom due to tourists coming to see the team. We also hear from a young woman who opened a cafe in a horse trailer and was invited to sell her wares at the Racecourse. Humphrey Ker, the team’s executive director, starts training for a marathon after Reynolds calls him on a charity-related vow to do so.
Finally, Williamson gets down to brass tacks with Reynolds and McElhenney on a Zoom call: Making the push to another promotion will cost about 50 million pounds, and comes with lots of risks if they end up falling back and getting relegated. Are they all in?
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Calling Welcome To Wrexham a real-life Ted Lasso doesn’t seem to do this show justice anymore, but it’s the most apt comparison we can find.
Our Take: Welcome To Wrexham has always been as much about the city of Wrexham, its loyalty to its football club and how it seems like both fell on hard times in the years before Reynolds and McIlhenney bought the team. So it’s a pretty natural thing for the series’ producers to show how the city is taking a turn for the better along with the team’s rocketing popularity.
What’s interesting is that, while they take time out to show people opening small business in the city — the second episode profiles a family of Ukrainian refugees that opened a coffee shop — there is also a sense that the city’s longtime residents might be left behind in this resurgence.
That aspect of Wrexham’s story isn’t highlighted, but it is there, and the filmmakers acknowledge it. And it’s why Williamson is so adamant about being able to maintain the balance of having the team grow while still keeping its roots and connections to the city and fanbase. Whether he can maintain that balance is yet to be seen.
By the way, this isn’t a spoiler, but Wrexham did indeed achieve that third promotion in a row, and it’ll be fun to see their journey to get there, along with how the women’s team develops.
Sex and Skin: None.
Parting Shot: As Reynolds and McIlhenney talk about the risks they’re taking with going all in in pursuit of another promotion, the first game of the 2024-25 season gets underway.
Sleeper Star: Humphrey Ker’s first day of marathon training, where he has to strip down to his skivvies, then go out on the field and do wind sprints, was fun and tough to watch. We were ready to see him throw up at the end of it, but it seemed like he kept it together.
Most Pilot-y Line: None we could find.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Welcome To Wrexham continues to show how the rise of Wrexham AFC has affected the fans and the city of Wrexham, while still having a good sense of humor around the fact that Reynolds and McIlhenney are the team’s owners.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.