Welcome to Wrexham (2022) s01e01 Episode Script
Dream
1
[indistinct chatter]
- POLICE OFFICER: Excuse us.
- ROB: Thank you, guys.
[chatter continues]
Thank you, gents.
POLICE OFFICER: Keep moving!
Guys, move on!
[excited chatter continues]
[camera shutter clicks]
- POLICE OFFICER: Keep it moving!
- ROB: Sorry, guys.
POLICE OFFICER: Keep going!
[chatter continues]
[soft dramatic music]
- ROB: Wow.
- PERSON: Yes, yes, yes.
Not bad, right?
I don't think the goosebumps
are 'cause it's cold.
I'm just thinking about
how many thousands of people
have come to watch these games
over the last 150 years.
- Pretty incredible.
- PERSON: Yeah.
RYAN: Oh, wow!
- PERSON: There you go.
- RYAN: Come on, now.
Now, that's a stadium.
- Wow.
- PERSON: Is that better?
[sighs]
ROB: So there is
a real risk for us.
RYAN: Yeah, I mean,
that's part of the anxiety.
Like, watching the team
lose last night,
you're thinking the investment
in this club just took a hit.
Yes.
And there is a version
of the story
where we are villains
[chuckles]
- Where it doesn't
- Oh, that's my usual story.
That's usually the story
in my head.
ROB: Yeah. It doesn't work,
and then we go,
"What are we gonna do?
We have to sell it."
- And then we're the bad guys.
- RYAN: Yeah.
- Fuck that.
- Fuck that.
Yeah.
It's gonna work.
KEB' MO': [singing]
Come gather round, people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched
to the bone
If your time to you
is worth savin'
Then you better start swimming
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times,
they are a-changin'
[upbeat folk guitar music]
SINGER: [singing]
Welcome to Wrexham
A diamond
in the heart of Wales
This land of dragons
Coal, fire, and steel
NEWSCASTER: Hollywood A-lister
Ryan Reynolds could be
about to take on
his next big role.
NEWSCASTER 2:
Fellow A-lister Rob McElhenney
is bidding with Reynolds.
They could be
about to launch a takeover
at Wrexham Football Club.
I'm hoping this is not
some big publicity stunt.
Ah, it's probably
just a joke on Twitter.
We've heard it all before,
so it'll go tits up, 100%.
Don't get me wrong.
If the intentions are good
and to move the club forward,
then fantastic, but we need
to know why Wrexham.
SINGER: [singing]
Welcome to Wrexham
ALL: E-A-G-L-E-S.
Eagles!
[cheers and applause]
[upbeat marching band music
playing]
ROB: I'm from Philadelphia,
and I've always been
a sports fanatic.
I couldn't play anything,
but I always love watching it.
My whole family loved
the Eagles.
It was just something
that was a part of my life
from the time I can remember.
The team becomes
an extension of the city.
- Whoo! Whoo!
- LEO: Yeah!
ROB: Even as a kid,
I just remember that gave me
something to identify with.
ALL: E-A-G-L-E-S!
Eagles!
[cheers and applause]
ROB: I grew up
in South Philadelphia
[whistling]
On the corner of Moyamensing
and Dickinson.
The Philadelphia that I know
and the Philadelphia
as it identifies itself,
are people who work really hard
for everything that they have.
[laughing]
Oh, my God.
This is incredible.
[laughs]
Oh, my God.
- This is crazy!
- [Bob chuckles]
- This is all exactly the same.
- BOB: Exactly the same. Yeah.
ROB:
Like, nothing has been changed.
And the best part about
this house was the outhouse
an actual outhouse,
'cause they didn't have
downstairs plumbing.
So if you were down here
and you didn't want
to go upstairs,
you just went outside
to the outhouse.
- ROB: So, Leo
- LEO: Ooh.
What would it be like
to share this room
with your brother?
- LEO: Uh, is it this small?
- Yeah.
Like, it would be, like,
this exact room.
Honestly,
if I could take this, I would.
- [laughter]
- ROB: You would?
You want an iPod?
Who doesn't?
ROB: One of the things
that was really attractive
about Wrexham is, even though
I've never been there,
the town reminds me
of Philadelphia.
It's a working-class town.
It's a blue-collar town.
It's a town that has had
its ups and downs,
and they haven't had
all the opportunities
that a lot
of other people have had.
I feel like
I know those people.
I grew up with those people.
I am one of those people.
[soft dramatic music]
Humphrey, what are the rules?
HUMPHREY:
Well, the rules are
our team's trying
to put the ball in your goal.
You're trying to put it
in our goal.
That's really all you need
to know right now.
- Where am I going?
- The goal.
KATIE: Yeah, Mom.
- [laughter]
- ALL: Hey!
Rob is a new convert
to the charms and joys
of football.
[laughter]
Rob and I have worked together
and we're friends.
I watch quite
a lot of football
in the writers' room
during our lunch breaks.
Rob started to be like,
"What is this?
Why are you so obsessed
with this stupid game?"
[chatter and laughter]
ROB: My mind was racing
when I learned
about the English system.
The idea that
you can get promoted
into a league above you
and demoted
and kicked out of the league
is incredible.
HUMPHREY: The English
professional football system,
or pyramid,
consists of four tiers.
The Premier League
at the top of the pyramid,
that's the créme de la créme
of football
where you've got
your Chelseas,
Manchester Uniteds.
And one tier down from that,
you've got the Championship,
then League One
and League Two.
So the farther up
the pyramid you are,
the better the talent,
the bigger the prizes,
and thus the more profitable
your club becomes.
Teams can move between tiers
via promotion and relegation.
At the end of the season,
the best teams go up,
and the worst teams go down.
For the past 14 seasons,
Wrexham have been
playing here,
below the pyramid,
in the National League,
the lowest level
of professional football
in England
the tiers below
being semi-professional.
Being relegated
to the National League is
[inhales sharply]
A bit like football purgatory.
The wages are low.
The prize money is low.
It makes it very difficult
for clubs like Wrexham
that drop into it
to get back into the English
football league system.
Imagine, if you will,
the New York Yankees
lose 150 games in a season.
They finish dead last,
and they have
to drop down a league
and the following year
play against the likes
of the Toledo Mud Hens
and the Sacramento River Cats.
And if they keep losing enough
and they keep
dropping leagues,
then eventually they end up
playing beer league softball
in Ithaca
or against fucking
12-year-olds in Williamsport.
[laughter]
ROB: And then I called
Humphrey, and I was like,
"If you had a club
that had an infrastructure
"that could at least support
"an even-ing
of the balance sheet,
"can't you theoretically
take a team that's
in the lowest league
and bring them to the top?"
Goal!
He said, "Yes."
But as I started to gather
more and more information,
I realized how expensive
it was going to be.
I have TV money,
but as I started to look
at how expensive
it actually was to run a club,
I realized that I needed
something more than TV money.
I needed
movie-star money.
Sometimes you got to let
your heart lead you,
even if you know it's someplace
you know
you're not supposed to be.
More than that, I needed
superhero movie-star money.
[DMX's "X Gon' Give it To Ya"]
Time to make
the chimi-fucking-changas.
More than that probably,
as we ascended up the leagues,
I would need
alcohol-baron money.
Aviation American Gin.
And
mobile-phone-services money,
and
what other companies
does this bitch have?
- PRODUCER: Cybersecurity.
- Cybersecurity money.
[laughs]
Andanybody?
What else has he got?
YOUNG ADAM: Ah!
[tense music]
What the fuck?
ThatI mean
PERSON: That was great.
RYAN:
In a PG-13 movie like this,
you get one "fuck," two "shits,"
and a glass of white wine,
and then you say,
"Hang on to your PG-13 rating."
[upbeat music]
I grew up
in a working-class family,
and I have
three older brothers.
My father struggled
in a number of different ways.
My dad started as a cop,
then became a food broker,
which sounds like a cover
for a CIA agent or something,
but that was his actual job.
Oh, my God, oh, my God,
oh, my God, oh, my God,
oh, my God, oh, my God!
The main place I got
validation from my father
like, if I was good at sports,
in my father's eyes,
I was doing all right.
So I played sports
long past the point
where I was, like,
really driven to play sports.
PERSON: Go back to, like
yeah, right here.
- RYAN: Yeah.
- PERSON: Yeah. Here we go.
[imitates whoosh]
It carried on, it carried on
all through show business,
all that, so, you know,
it's like an unquenchable
thirst for validation.
- YOUNG ADAM: Aah!
- [imitates explosions]
My father's been dead for years,
but, like,
it's, you know, you kind of
stuff doesn't really go away.
It's easier to sort of think
of him, you know,
the way I'm describing him,
as, like, a really hard-ass.
He would have thought
all of this was wild.
Like, you know, he didn't
really see any of the stuff
Deadpool forward,
so I think he would have thought
this was all pretty crazy.
- [cell phone ringing]
- ROB: Ryan's FaceTiming me.
Hey, you look great.
HUMPHREY: All you two do is
tell each other you look great.
Yeah. I know.
It's just constantly
HUMPHREY: Why it's such
a successful friendship.
- He seems insecure.
- [laughs]
ROB: I don't really know Ryan
that well.
I've never met him in person
before this.
We met through social media
and then just became friends.
Great.
So that one should work,
but as long as it's not
yes, that should work.
Today is the call to
the Wrexham Supporters Trust.
Because it is a club
that is owned by the fans,
we have to persuade them
to vote us through
by a 75-25 margin.
It's quite a high bar,
but that was put in place
'cause it had terrible owners
in the past,
and so people wanted to make
sure that if they were gonna
vote for anyone,
it was the right person.
RYAN: So, you know,
we created a proposal
and really made sure
that we conveyed to
the community our intentions.
ROB: In terms of trust,
they have been burned before
- by shady people.
- Mm-hmm.
ROB: But we're not
some shady businessmen
that can just, like,
if this goes south, like,
lurk into the shadows
and pretend like
it never happened
and just go back to our lives.
No.
People know where to find us.
- ROB: Yes, yes.
- [Ryan chuckles]
ROB: At stake today is whether
or not we get to become
the next stewards
of Wrexham Football Club.
So if it goes south,
then we won't.
This is a very high-profile
thing with a lot at stake,
and we really don't want
to let them down,
and I think
we can speak to that.
I don't know
that we necessarily can speak
so much to,
"You have to trust us,"
'cause then it feels
a little Harold Hill to me.
- Yeah, great.
- And I feel likeyeah.
- Great. All right. Awesome.
- Great.
- All right.
- I will, uh[chuckles]
I will see you soon.
Bye.
Ah, he got the last word in.
Fuck.
I got to
[soft music]
BRIAN: Hello, everybody.
I hope you can hear me okay.
My name's Brian Phillips.
I'm the chair
of Wrexham Supporters Trust,
and I want to welcome members
and our special guests
to this very special
presentation evening.
- Please note
- Sweating.
JAMES: I would like
to invite Rob McElhenney
and Ryan Reynolds on screen.
Hey, hey.
JAMES: They will talk you
through some key questions
about their proposed takeover
of Wrexham AFC.
We'll start with
if you could talk us through
what yours and Rob's vision
for the club is
if members decide
to entrust it to you.
I think I just want to start
by ripping the Band-Aid off
and addressing the fact
that this is all pretty
[chuckles]
Pretty wild.
I'm sure it's got to be
a little disconcerting
that a Canadian and an American
are so interested in your club,
but we want to assure
everyone on this call
that we are taking this venture
very seriously.
I don't care
if you're a movie star.
I don't care
if you're driving a forklift.
When you're in a situation
where you're seeking
the approval of other people,
your brain is always going,
"They're gonna say no.
They don'tthey're on to me."
Imposter syndrome
is in full effect.
JAMES:
Rob, could you answer first?
And I guess
it's the big question
why Wrexham AFC?
When I tell people
that the Eagles
winning the Super Bowl
was one of the greatest days
of my life
it was top five greatest days
of my life
- [all cheering]
- That's it! They got it!
People who are supporters
of clubs
and sporting fans
across the world
know exactly what I'm talking
about, and I mean it.
I put it up there
with the birth of my children
and my wedding day
not because of what happened
on the field,
but because of what it meant to
an entire community of people
and to my relationships
with my friends
and my family members
and the entire city
of Philadelphia.
I really believe that we can
build something like that,
and I want to be there
for that.
I want to be a part of that,
and I hope
that you will allow us
to help you
achieve something like that.
RYAN: Should the majority
of the supporters
decide that we're the guys
for the job,
we would be honored
and thrilled,
and we would never,
ever once take that lightly.
We will laugh at ourselves,
but we will never laugh
at the situation.
Well, thank you, gentlemen,
for your time this evening.
- Thank you.
- Thank you, guys.
Appreciate it.
[soft music]
There you go.
And now
it's in the people's hands.
It is.
I thought
that went very, very well.
- Yeah.
- HUMPHREY: Agreed.
You know what was one
of my favorite parts was
when they asked
about the documentary
and you could see
the giant camera behind you
- ROB: Oh, for real?
- [laughing] Filming. Yes.
Yes, so I was so glad
you were like
right away, you were like,
"Oh, yeah, hell, yeah,
we're doing a documentary."
I was like, "Yeah,
we're making a documentary,
like,
right this fucking second."
Well, what the fuck?
That's your responsibility.
RYAN: I can see a gigantic
Is that an IMAX camera?
Like, what the fuck?
[pensive music]
SPENCER: A lot of people
outside the UK
aren't even aware
that Wales is not in England.
It's a separate country.
It's on the west coast
of the UK,
and Wrexham's a town
of about 65,000 people
in the northeast of Wales.
Wrexham was a nice place
to grow up.
It was a really safe place
where communities
pull together.
And of course,
when I was growing up,
we had
a really good football team.
As a child,
my father took me to games,
and I can remember back then,
we were what is now known
as the Championship
or the level
below the Premier League.
[cheers and applause]
It's the third-oldest
professional club
in the world.
It's the oldest club in Wales,
and it plays at the Cae Ras,
or the Racecourse in English,
which is the oldest
international stadium
still in use
anywhere in the world.
And for many, many years,
Wrexham were Wales' best club.
COMMENTATOR:
And it's Thomas who takes it.
Oh, what a goal!
Mickey Thomas!
BRYN: When I started
watching Wrexham,
we had a team of heroes
in those days.
Wrexham's crowds would compare
favorably with many clubs,
even sometimes
in top divisions
in other countries in Europe.
Three, two, one, fire.
[explosion]
BRYN:
But by the very early '80s,
Wrexham became
a very depressed town
with incredibly high levels
of unemployment.
[barking]
PERSON: People have asked me,
"What's Wrexham like?"
I've just said, "Don't go."
- "It's a load of rubbish."
- [laughs]
PERSON:
"You're wasting your time."
BRYN: The football club
was impacted
by hard times as well.
In a small place,
the fortunes of the town
and its team
are inextricably intertwined.
The two absolutely
depend upon one another.
Wrexham is a town that battles
against odds constantly.
It really is a place
where people deserve
a little bit more than maybe
they've got out of life.
But the thing that we love
more than anything
is the football club.
[Apashe ft. Instasamka's
"Uebok [Gotta Run]"]
SINGER: [rapping in Russian]
Holy shit, holy shit,
ujobok, gotta run
Make a hit, make a hit,
we ain't here for fun
Holy shit, holy shit,
jeto hit and run
Make a hit, make a hit,
like a machine gun
SHAUN: Wrexham
we're the fifth tier
of professional football.
We are the bottom level
of the professional game.
LUKE: Professional football
is everybody,
whether you're
in the National League
or Premier League,
but there is a big difference
in terms of lifestyle, money.
HUMPHREY: The average salary
for a Premier League
footballer
is about
£3 1/2 million a year.
A player in the National League
will be makinga bit less.
[cash register bell rings,
winds down]
SINGER: [singing]
Gotta run, make a hit
CHRISTIAN: You tell people
you're a professional
footballer,
and instantly they think
flash car, nice house,
and it's not.
It's not like that.
[crowd clamoring]
Absolute fucking disaster!
LAINTON: A lot of times,
you can actually hear
someone calling you shit or
[laughs]
Yeah.
[laughs]
SINGER: [singing]
Ujobok, ujobok, ujobok
TYLER: Even playing at this
level and getting paid for it,
it still is living the dream.
I know the dream is the top,
but this is still a dream.
SINGER: [singing]
Ujobok, holy shit
REECE: When you're
in the non-league,
you've got to grind
for everything,
you got to work hard
for everything,
you got to pay
for everything,
but I think as a football
it's the same game.
You're still playing football.
You're still enjoying it.
DANIEL: Promotion's the goal.
We want to win the league.
We want to be the best team
in the league by a mile.
JORDAN: Getting back
into that fourth tier,
the League Two,
would be amazing for the club,
'cause if you get back
into the fourth tier,
you get a lot of funding
from the football league.
PAUL: I'm really excited
the takeover's happening
because they can improve
the whole town as a collective
in terms of the infrastructure
of the town.
You know,
the stadium will likely improve.
LUKE: This club's obviously
been down in this league
for a long time now,
and as captain,
I'd love to get to the end
of my career and look back
on being the one that led it
back into the football league.
WAYNE: Doo-do-doo.
All right, then, with all that
said, what we going for?
If we get an early goal,
2-nil, Wrexham.
- WAYNE: 2-nil?
- If we get an early goal.
[stately music]
WAYNE:
Dave-o, what do you think?
I'll go 1-nil.
I just can't see us
keeping 'em out.
We justwe're not confident.
I think I'm gonna go 1-1.
I hope I'm wrong,
but we just don't
score enough goals, do we?
[folk music]
[car alarm beeps]
SPENCER:
I'm a volunteer at the club.
I joined the trust board
nine years ago
as Director, Wrexham AFC,
and what I do
is I manage the budget.
I organize all board meetings,
all agendas.
I tend to be the person
who deals with media
and more or less
the face of the club
from a business side.
I've got a really big day job
for a multinational company,
which means I work long hours
anyway during the week.
And at weekends,
I've given everything to
the football club that I can.
I've prioritized it
over career advancement,
over family.
[indistinct chatter]
This season, it's been
very, very challenging,
given global pandemic.
We weren't allowed to have
supporters in the stadium,
which was the main source of
income for the football club.
BRYN: Because of the pandemic,
no fans coming into the ground
to pay the one major
income stream
there's no broadcast money
at this level.
It's what comes in
through the turnstiles
is the major revenue raiser,
and from March onwards,
nobody's been coming in
to football stadia
to support the teams.
[indistinct chatter]
[soft dramatic music]
So how are the clubs
like Wrexham gonna survive?
It's an extremely
uncertain future
that Wrexham was looking at.
Face the ball,
face the ball!
So the takeover,
from Wrexham's perspective,
the timing was
could not have been better.
[indistinct shouting]
SPENCER: In my view, getting
out of the National League
is the hardest job
in world football.
FOOTBALLER: Come on, then!
- [whistle blows]
- ALL: Yeah!
SPENCER: And I think
if the club wants to get out
of the National League,
it needs to change.
If Rob and Ryan can bring
that change, then fantastic.
[sizzling]
WAYNE: Thank you very much.
[laughs]
[soft dramatic music]
The home
of Wrexham Football Club
the Turf Hotel.
[upbeat music]
The club was founded
in this very building,
which sits directly outside
the main entrance
to the grounds.
[stately music]
The bar is always
five or six deep.
My parents were regulars here,
and I remember
coming to this pub
after the match
and they've won.
And the jukebox is blaring,
and people are singing,
and people are happy.
And from that minute on,
I was absolutely hooked.
We had the badge
built into the wall.
That was just my way
of, you know,
keeping the pub
and the club connected.
In my 13 years of being here,
we've only ever closed one day.
We open 365 days a year.
We even open on Christmas Day
and Christmas night,
but like every other pub,
we've been closed
because of COVID.
You can't put into words
what it means to people.
You know, it's almost
like losing a limb,
because people say
it's only a game, but it's not.
It's more than that, you know?
This football club
means everything
to people in this town.
Anybody that you speak to
will tell you
it's been
a real difficult decade.
The past owners
that we've had
and are they here
for the wrong reasons?
So you still don't allow
yourself to believe
that this could happen.
But this set of supporters,
this town,
this community
deserves a break.
[computer chimes]
Hello.
- Mustache is gone.
- ROB: Oh, yeah.
Yep.
I'm no longer on camera, so
SPENCER: Well, here we are,
after what feels like
an age, right?
I have actual butterflies
right now.
As you know, the threshold
on the vote was high.
So you needed to get
a 75% or more
of those voting for
for this to pass.
The turnout
was massive, right?
91.5% of people
who could vote voted.
Wow.
On resolution one,
it was a 98.6% for.
- BOTH: Wow.
- On resolution two,
it was a 98.4% for,
and on resolution three,
it was a 98.4% for, so
[Ryan chuckles]
An overwhelming
and resounding yes.
So congratulations
and really well done.
"Llongyfarchiadau,"
we say in Wales.
- [laughter]
- Thank you.
SPENCER: Really looking
forward to the journey.
When you wake up tomorrow,
the announcement
will be out there,
and let the fun commence.
[fireworks whistling, popping]
[all chanting indistinctly]
[all chanting indistinctly]
SPENCER: It's not 100%
in their control
that they're gonna
get this club promoted,
but if they do that,
it will be
one of the biggest days
in the history of the town.
NEWSCASTER: The Red Army
had something to sing about
this afternoon.
ANNOUNCER: [speaking German]
ANNOUNCER: [speaking Spanish]
A good moment
to congratulate Ryan Reynolds
and Rob McElhenney
for their recent purchase
of Wrexham Football Club.
[triumphant musical flourish]
[child giggles, seagull cries]
Captioned by Captionmax
[indistinct chatter]
- POLICE OFFICER: Excuse us.
- ROB: Thank you, guys.
[chatter continues]
Thank you, gents.
POLICE OFFICER: Keep moving!
Guys, move on!
[excited chatter continues]
[camera shutter clicks]
- POLICE OFFICER: Keep it moving!
- ROB: Sorry, guys.
POLICE OFFICER: Keep going!
[chatter continues]
[soft dramatic music]
- ROB: Wow.
- PERSON: Yes, yes, yes.
Not bad, right?
I don't think the goosebumps
are 'cause it's cold.
I'm just thinking about
how many thousands of people
have come to watch these games
over the last 150 years.
- Pretty incredible.
- PERSON: Yeah.
RYAN: Oh, wow!
- PERSON: There you go.
- RYAN: Come on, now.
Now, that's a stadium.
- Wow.
- PERSON: Is that better?
[sighs]
ROB: So there is
a real risk for us.
RYAN: Yeah, I mean,
that's part of the anxiety.
Like, watching the team
lose last night,
you're thinking the investment
in this club just took a hit.
Yes.
And there is a version
of the story
where we are villains
[chuckles]
- Where it doesn't
- Oh, that's my usual story.
That's usually the story
in my head.
ROB: Yeah. It doesn't work,
and then we go,
"What are we gonna do?
We have to sell it."
- And then we're the bad guys.
- RYAN: Yeah.
- Fuck that.
- Fuck that.
Yeah.
It's gonna work.
KEB' MO': [singing]
Come gather round, people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched
to the bone
If your time to you
is worth savin'
Then you better start swimming
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times,
they are a-changin'
[upbeat folk guitar music]
SINGER: [singing]
Welcome to Wrexham
A diamond
in the heart of Wales
This land of dragons
Coal, fire, and steel
NEWSCASTER: Hollywood A-lister
Ryan Reynolds could be
about to take on
his next big role.
NEWSCASTER 2:
Fellow A-lister Rob McElhenney
is bidding with Reynolds.
They could be
about to launch a takeover
at Wrexham Football Club.
I'm hoping this is not
some big publicity stunt.
Ah, it's probably
just a joke on Twitter.
We've heard it all before,
so it'll go tits up, 100%.
Don't get me wrong.
If the intentions are good
and to move the club forward,
then fantastic, but we need
to know why Wrexham.
SINGER: [singing]
Welcome to Wrexham
ALL: E-A-G-L-E-S.
Eagles!
[cheers and applause]
[upbeat marching band music
playing]
ROB: I'm from Philadelphia,
and I've always been
a sports fanatic.
I couldn't play anything,
but I always love watching it.
My whole family loved
the Eagles.
It was just something
that was a part of my life
from the time I can remember.
The team becomes
an extension of the city.
- Whoo! Whoo!
- LEO: Yeah!
ROB: Even as a kid,
I just remember that gave me
something to identify with.
ALL: E-A-G-L-E-S!
Eagles!
[cheers and applause]
ROB: I grew up
in South Philadelphia
[whistling]
On the corner of Moyamensing
and Dickinson.
The Philadelphia that I know
and the Philadelphia
as it identifies itself,
are people who work really hard
for everything that they have.
[laughing]
Oh, my God.
This is incredible.
[laughs]
Oh, my God.
- This is crazy!
- [Bob chuckles]
- This is all exactly the same.
- BOB: Exactly the same. Yeah.
ROB:
Like, nothing has been changed.
And the best part about
this house was the outhouse
an actual outhouse,
'cause they didn't have
downstairs plumbing.
So if you were down here
and you didn't want
to go upstairs,
you just went outside
to the outhouse.
- ROB: So, Leo
- LEO: Ooh.
What would it be like
to share this room
with your brother?
- LEO: Uh, is it this small?
- Yeah.
Like, it would be, like,
this exact room.
Honestly,
if I could take this, I would.
- [laughter]
- ROB: You would?
You want an iPod?
Who doesn't?
ROB: One of the things
that was really attractive
about Wrexham is, even though
I've never been there,
the town reminds me
of Philadelphia.
It's a working-class town.
It's a blue-collar town.
It's a town that has had
its ups and downs,
and they haven't had
all the opportunities
that a lot
of other people have had.
I feel like
I know those people.
I grew up with those people.
I am one of those people.
[soft dramatic music]
Humphrey, what are the rules?
HUMPHREY:
Well, the rules are
our team's trying
to put the ball in your goal.
You're trying to put it
in our goal.
That's really all you need
to know right now.
- Where am I going?
- The goal.
KATIE: Yeah, Mom.
- [laughter]
- ALL: Hey!
Rob is a new convert
to the charms and joys
of football.
[laughter]
Rob and I have worked together
and we're friends.
I watch quite
a lot of football
in the writers' room
during our lunch breaks.
Rob started to be like,
"What is this?
Why are you so obsessed
with this stupid game?"
[chatter and laughter]
ROB: My mind was racing
when I learned
about the English system.
The idea that
you can get promoted
into a league above you
and demoted
and kicked out of the league
is incredible.
HUMPHREY: The English
professional football system,
or pyramid,
consists of four tiers.
The Premier League
at the top of the pyramid,
that's the créme de la créme
of football
where you've got
your Chelseas,
Manchester Uniteds.
And one tier down from that,
you've got the Championship,
then League One
and League Two.
So the farther up
the pyramid you are,
the better the talent,
the bigger the prizes,
and thus the more profitable
your club becomes.
Teams can move between tiers
via promotion and relegation.
At the end of the season,
the best teams go up,
and the worst teams go down.
For the past 14 seasons,
Wrexham have been
playing here,
below the pyramid,
in the National League,
the lowest level
of professional football
in England
the tiers below
being semi-professional.
Being relegated
to the National League is
[inhales sharply]
A bit like football purgatory.
The wages are low.
The prize money is low.
It makes it very difficult
for clubs like Wrexham
that drop into it
to get back into the English
football league system.
Imagine, if you will,
the New York Yankees
lose 150 games in a season.
They finish dead last,
and they have
to drop down a league
and the following year
play against the likes
of the Toledo Mud Hens
and the Sacramento River Cats.
And if they keep losing enough
and they keep
dropping leagues,
then eventually they end up
playing beer league softball
in Ithaca
or against fucking
12-year-olds in Williamsport.
[laughter]
ROB: And then I called
Humphrey, and I was like,
"If you had a club
that had an infrastructure
"that could at least support
"an even-ing
of the balance sheet,
"can't you theoretically
take a team that's
in the lowest league
and bring them to the top?"
Goal!
He said, "Yes."
But as I started to gather
more and more information,
I realized how expensive
it was going to be.
I have TV money,
but as I started to look
at how expensive
it actually was to run a club,
I realized that I needed
something more than TV money.
I needed
movie-star money.
Sometimes you got to let
your heart lead you,
even if you know it's someplace
you know
you're not supposed to be.
More than that, I needed
superhero movie-star money.
[DMX's "X Gon' Give it To Ya"]
Time to make
the chimi-fucking-changas.
More than that probably,
as we ascended up the leagues,
I would need
alcohol-baron money.
Aviation American Gin.
And
mobile-phone-services money,
and
what other companies
does this bitch have?
- PRODUCER: Cybersecurity.
- Cybersecurity money.
[laughs]
Andanybody?
What else has he got?
YOUNG ADAM: Ah!
[tense music]
What the fuck?
ThatI mean
PERSON: That was great.
RYAN:
In a PG-13 movie like this,
you get one "fuck," two "shits,"
and a glass of white wine,
and then you say,
"Hang on to your PG-13 rating."
[upbeat music]
I grew up
in a working-class family,
and I have
three older brothers.
My father struggled
in a number of different ways.
My dad started as a cop,
then became a food broker,
which sounds like a cover
for a CIA agent or something,
but that was his actual job.
Oh, my God, oh, my God,
oh, my God, oh, my God,
oh, my God, oh, my God!
The main place I got
validation from my father
like, if I was good at sports,
in my father's eyes,
I was doing all right.
So I played sports
long past the point
where I was, like,
really driven to play sports.
PERSON: Go back to, like
yeah, right here.
- RYAN: Yeah.
- PERSON: Yeah. Here we go.
[imitates whoosh]
It carried on, it carried on
all through show business,
all that, so, you know,
it's like an unquenchable
thirst for validation.
- YOUNG ADAM: Aah!
- [imitates explosions]
My father's been dead for years,
but, like,
it's, you know, you kind of
stuff doesn't really go away.
It's easier to sort of think
of him, you know,
the way I'm describing him,
as, like, a really hard-ass.
He would have thought
all of this was wild.
Like, you know, he didn't
really see any of the stuff
Deadpool forward,
so I think he would have thought
this was all pretty crazy.
- [cell phone ringing]
- ROB: Ryan's FaceTiming me.
Hey, you look great.
HUMPHREY: All you two do is
tell each other you look great.
Yeah. I know.
It's just constantly
HUMPHREY: Why it's such
a successful friendship.
- He seems insecure.
- [laughs]
ROB: I don't really know Ryan
that well.
I've never met him in person
before this.
We met through social media
and then just became friends.
Great.
So that one should work,
but as long as it's not
yes, that should work.
Today is the call to
the Wrexham Supporters Trust.
Because it is a club
that is owned by the fans,
we have to persuade them
to vote us through
by a 75-25 margin.
It's quite a high bar,
but that was put in place
'cause it had terrible owners
in the past,
and so people wanted to make
sure that if they were gonna
vote for anyone,
it was the right person.
RYAN: So, you know,
we created a proposal
and really made sure
that we conveyed to
the community our intentions.
ROB: In terms of trust,
they have been burned before
- by shady people.
- Mm-hmm.
ROB: But we're not
some shady businessmen
that can just, like,
if this goes south, like,
lurk into the shadows
and pretend like
it never happened
and just go back to our lives.
No.
People know where to find us.
- ROB: Yes, yes.
- [Ryan chuckles]
ROB: At stake today is whether
or not we get to become
the next stewards
of Wrexham Football Club.
So if it goes south,
then we won't.
This is a very high-profile
thing with a lot at stake,
and we really don't want
to let them down,
and I think
we can speak to that.
I don't know
that we necessarily can speak
so much to,
"You have to trust us,"
'cause then it feels
a little Harold Hill to me.
- Yeah, great.
- And I feel likeyeah.
- Great. All right. Awesome.
- Great.
- All right.
- I will, uh[chuckles]
I will see you soon.
Bye.
Ah, he got the last word in.
Fuck.
I got to
[soft music]
BRIAN: Hello, everybody.
I hope you can hear me okay.
My name's Brian Phillips.
I'm the chair
of Wrexham Supporters Trust,
and I want to welcome members
and our special guests
to this very special
presentation evening.
- Please note
- Sweating.
JAMES: I would like
to invite Rob McElhenney
and Ryan Reynolds on screen.
Hey, hey.
JAMES: They will talk you
through some key questions
about their proposed takeover
of Wrexham AFC.
We'll start with
if you could talk us through
what yours and Rob's vision
for the club is
if members decide
to entrust it to you.
I think I just want to start
by ripping the Band-Aid off
and addressing the fact
that this is all pretty
[chuckles]
Pretty wild.
I'm sure it's got to be
a little disconcerting
that a Canadian and an American
are so interested in your club,
but we want to assure
everyone on this call
that we are taking this venture
very seriously.
I don't care
if you're a movie star.
I don't care
if you're driving a forklift.
When you're in a situation
where you're seeking
the approval of other people,
your brain is always going,
"They're gonna say no.
They don'tthey're on to me."
Imposter syndrome
is in full effect.
JAMES:
Rob, could you answer first?
And I guess
it's the big question
why Wrexham AFC?
When I tell people
that the Eagles
winning the Super Bowl
was one of the greatest days
of my life
it was top five greatest days
of my life
- [all cheering]
- That's it! They got it!
People who are supporters
of clubs
and sporting fans
across the world
know exactly what I'm talking
about, and I mean it.
I put it up there
with the birth of my children
and my wedding day
not because of what happened
on the field,
but because of what it meant to
an entire community of people
and to my relationships
with my friends
and my family members
and the entire city
of Philadelphia.
I really believe that we can
build something like that,
and I want to be there
for that.
I want to be a part of that,
and I hope
that you will allow us
to help you
achieve something like that.
RYAN: Should the majority
of the supporters
decide that we're the guys
for the job,
we would be honored
and thrilled,
and we would never,
ever once take that lightly.
We will laugh at ourselves,
but we will never laugh
at the situation.
Well, thank you, gentlemen,
for your time this evening.
- Thank you.
- Thank you, guys.
Appreciate it.
[soft music]
There you go.
And now
it's in the people's hands.
It is.
I thought
that went very, very well.
- Yeah.
- HUMPHREY: Agreed.
You know what was one
of my favorite parts was
when they asked
about the documentary
and you could see
the giant camera behind you
- ROB: Oh, for real?
- [laughing] Filming. Yes.
Yes, so I was so glad
you were like
right away, you were like,
"Oh, yeah, hell, yeah,
we're doing a documentary."
I was like, "Yeah,
we're making a documentary,
like,
right this fucking second."
Well, what the fuck?
That's your responsibility.
RYAN: I can see a gigantic
Is that an IMAX camera?
Like, what the fuck?
[pensive music]
SPENCER: A lot of people
outside the UK
aren't even aware
that Wales is not in England.
It's a separate country.
It's on the west coast
of the UK,
and Wrexham's a town
of about 65,000 people
in the northeast of Wales.
Wrexham was a nice place
to grow up.
It was a really safe place
where communities
pull together.
And of course,
when I was growing up,
we had
a really good football team.
As a child,
my father took me to games,
and I can remember back then,
we were what is now known
as the Championship
or the level
below the Premier League.
[cheers and applause]
It's the third-oldest
professional club
in the world.
It's the oldest club in Wales,
and it plays at the Cae Ras,
or the Racecourse in English,
which is the oldest
international stadium
still in use
anywhere in the world.
And for many, many years,
Wrexham were Wales' best club.
COMMENTATOR:
And it's Thomas who takes it.
Oh, what a goal!
Mickey Thomas!
BRYN: When I started
watching Wrexham,
we had a team of heroes
in those days.
Wrexham's crowds would compare
favorably with many clubs,
even sometimes
in top divisions
in other countries in Europe.
Three, two, one, fire.
[explosion]
BRYN:
But by the very early '80s,
Wrexham became
a very depressed town
with incredibly high levels
of unemployment.
[barking]
PERSON: People have asked me,
"What's Wrexham like?"
I've just said, "Don't go."
- "It's a load of rubbish."
- [laughs]
PERSON:
"You're wasting your time."
BRYN: The football club
was impacted
by hard times as well.
In a small place,
the fortunes of the town
and its team
are inextricably intertwined.
The two absolutely
depend upon one another.
Wrexham is a town that battles
against odds constantly.
It really is a place
where people deserve
a little bit more than maybe
they've got out of life.
But the thing that we love
more than anything
is the football club.
[Apashe ft. Instasamka's
"Uebok [Gotta Run]"]
SINGER: [rapping in Russian]
Holy shit, holy shit,
ujobok, gotta run
Make a hit, make a hit,
we ain't here for fun
Holy shit, holy shit,
jeto hit and run
Make a hit, make a hit,
like a machine gun
SHAUN: Wrexham
we're the fifth tier
of professional football.
We are the bottom level
of the professional game.
LUKE: Professional football
is everybody,
whether you're
in the National League
or Premier League,
but there is a big difference
in terms of lifestyle, money.
HUMPHREY: The average salary
for a Premier League
footballer
is about
£3 1/2 million a year.
A player in the National League
will be makinga bit less.
[cash register bell rings,
winds down]
SINGER: [singing]
Gotta run, make a hit
CHRISTIAN: You tell people
you're a professional
footballer,
and instantly they think
flash car, nice house,
and it's not.
It's not like that.
[crowd clamoring]
Absolute fucking disaster!
LAINTON: A lot of times,
you can actually hear
someone calling you shit or
[laughs]
Yeah.
[laughs]
SINGER: [singing]
Ujobok, ujobok, ujobok
TYLER: Even playing at this
level and getting paid for it,
it still is living the dream.
I know the dream is the top,
but this is still a dream.
SINGER: [singing]
Ujobok, holy shit
REECE: When you're
in the non-league,
you've got to grind
for everything,
you got to work hard
for everything,
you got to pay
for everything,
but I think as a football
it's the same game.
You're still playing football.
You're still enjoying it.
DANIEL: Promotion's the goal.
We want to win the league.
We want to be the best team
in the league by a mile.
JORDAN: Getting back
into that fourth tier,
the League Two,
would be amazing for the club,
'cause if you get back
into the fourth tier,
you get a lot of funding
from the football league.
PAUL: I'm really excited
the takeover's happening
because they can improve
the whole town as a collective
in terms of the infrastructure
of the town.
You know,
the stadium will likely improve.
LUKE: This club's obviously
been down in this league
for a long time now,
and as captain,
I'd love to get to the end
of my career and look back
on being the one that led it
back into the football league.
WAYNE: Doo-do-doo.
All right, then, with all that
said, what we going for?
If we get an early goal,
2-nil, Wrexham.
- WAYNE: 2-nil?
- If we get an early goal.
[stately music]
WAYNE:
Dave-o, what do you think?
I'll go 1-nil.
I just can't see us
keeping 'em out.
We justwe're not confident.
I think I'm gonna go 1-1.
I hope I'm wrong,
but we just don't
score enough goals, do we?
[folk music]
[car alarm beeps]
SPENCER:
I'm a volunteer at the club.
I joined the trust board
nine years ago
as Director, Wrexham AFC,
and what I do
is I manage the budget.
I organize all board meetings,
all agendas.
I tend to be the person
who deals with media
and more or less
the face of the club
from a business side.
I've got a really big day job
for a multinational company,
which means I work long hours
anyway during the week.
And at weekends,
I've given everything to
the football club that I can.
I've prioritized it
over career advancement,
over family.
[indistinct chatter]
This season, it's been
very, very challenging,
given global pandemic.
We weren't allowed to have
supporters in the stadium,
which was the main source of
income for the football club.
BRYN: Because of the pandemic,
no fans coming into the ground
to pay the one major
income stream
there's no broadcast money
at this level.
It's what comes in
through the turnstiles
is the major revenue raiser,
and from March onwards,
nobody's been coming in
to football stadia
to support the teams.
[indistinct chatter]
[soft dramatic music]
So how are the clubs
like Wrexham gonna survive?
It's an extremely
uncertain future
that Wrexham was looking at.
Face the ball,
face the ball!
So the takeover,
from Wrexham's perspective,
the timing was
could not have been better.
[indistinct shouting]
SPENCER: In my view, getting
out of the National League
is the hardest job
in world football.
FOOTBALLER: Come on, then!
- [whistle blows]
- ALL: Yeah!
SPENCER: And I think
if the club wants to get out
of the National League,
it needs to change.
If Rob and Ryan can bring
that change, then fantastic.
[sizzling]
WAYNE: Thank you very much.
[laughs]
[soft dramatic music]
The home
of Wrexham Football Club
the Turf Hotel.
[upbeat music]
The club was founded
in this very building,
which sits directly outside
the main entrance
to the grounds.
[stately music]
The bar is always
five or six deep.
My parents were regulars here,
and I remember
coming to this pub
after the match
and they've won.
And the jukebox is blaring,
and people are singing,
and people are happy.
And from that minute on,
I was absolutely hooked.
We had the badge
built into the wall.
That was just my way
of, you know,
keeping the pub
and the club connected.
In my 13 years of being here,
we've only ever closed one day.
We open 365 days a year.
We even open on Christmas Day
and Christmas night,
but like every other pub,
we've been closed
because of COVID.
You can't put into words
what it means to people.
You know, it's almost
like losing a limb,
because people say
it's only a game, but it's not.
It's more than that, you know?
This football club
means everything
to people in this town.
Anybody that you speak to
will tell you
it's been
a real difficult decade.
The past owners
that we've had
and are they here
for the wrong reasons?
So you still don't allow
yourself to believe
that this could happen.
But this set of supporters,
this town,
this community
deserves a break.
[computer chimes]
Hello.
- Mustache is gone.
- ROB: Oh, yeah.
Yep.
I'm no longer on camera, so
SPENCER: Well, here we are,
after what feels like
an age, right?
I have actual butterflies
right now.
As you know, the threshold
on the vote was high.
So you needed to get
a 75% or more
of those voting for
for this to pass.
The turnout
was massive, right?
91.5% of people
who could vote voted.
Wow.
On resolution one,
it was a 98.6% for.
- BOTH: Wow.
- On resolution two,
it was a 98.4% for,
and on resolution three,
it was a 98.4% for, so
[Ryan chuckles]
An overwhelming
and resounding yes.
So congratulations
and really well done.
"Llongyfarchiadau,"
we say in Wales.
- [laughter]
- Thank you.
SPENCER: Really looking
forward to the journey.
When you wake up tomorrow,
the announcement
will be out there,
and let the fun commence.
[fireworks whistling, popping]
[all chanting indistinctly]
[all chanting indistinctly]
SPENCER: It's not 100%
in their control
that they're gonna
get this club promoted,
but if they do that,
it will be
one of the biggest days
in the history of the town.
NEWSCASTER: The Red Army
had something to sing about
this afternoon.
ANNOUNCER: [speaking German]
ANNOUNCER: [speaking Spanish]
A good moment
to congratulate Ryan Reynolds
and Rob McElhenney
for their recent purchase
of Wrexham Football Club.
[triumphant musical flourish]
[child giggles, seagull cries]
Captioned by Captionmax