Wrexham's meteoric rise has been one of modern football's great journeys. Starting the 2022-23 season in the National League, and now, after back-to-back promotions, they are looking to climb out of Football League One and into the Championship, sitting at 2nd place with only Birmingham ahead of them.
The oldest club in Wales' turnaround began in late 2020 when Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney bought the club for £2 million. Now, in 2025, Wrexham is worth over £100 million, a 4900% increase in value since it was purchased. However, the pair were not dead set on buying the Welsh club from the off.
Speaking on former Wrexham goalkeeper Ben Foster's Fozcast - The Ben Foster Podcast, former executive director of the club, Humphrey Ker described the process of how himself and Rob McElhenney were workshopping ideas on what club would be the best buy, and the It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia actor's Irish roots sprung to mind.
I don’t think I’ve ever brought this up before, initially, he wanted to do it in Ireland or Scotland, because he’s from Ireland, so he was like ‘what about Shamrock Rovers?’ I was like, look… the League of Ireland has great clubs, historic clubs, it would be brilliant in many ways, but it would be like throwing a brick into a pond – if you put your time and energy and resources into a League of Ireland club, you win the League of Ireland instantaneously, no-one can come close to you and there’s no drama there.
Clip at 4:23
The idea was short lived as Ker brought up the importance of a "room for growth." The same problem arose with the Scottish league as the team would quickly climb to the Premiership, but then get stuck in a loop of getting "hammered" every time they play the likes of Celtic and Rangers, so the English ladder was the natural choice in the end.
Still, the idea was there, albeit briefly.
