The latest pack of Welcome to Wrexham episodes provide newly bred football fans with a quick summary of hooliganism, as well as the storm before the calm that rocked the first few months of manager Phil Parkinson’s tenure at the club, and it’s fair to say both are entertaining in their own distinct ways.
It’s always been obvious that Welcome to Wrexham has several tasks in hand, among them pushing the further familiarization of American audiences with football, hence why it’s no surprise to see hooliganism, one of the sport’s most fascinating and scandalous facets take the spotlight. Nevertheless, “Hooligans” does a great job at framing the phenomena from different perspectives, including that of owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, a Green Street Hooligans type of couple, and even a victim of its atrociousness.
See, hooliganism is not really a thing in American sports, and here Welcome to Wrexham does a fine job at depicting some of football’s most insane rivalries such as Celtic and Rangers' religiously inspired animosity, while also showing footage from other parts of the world. It also takes a look back at the Heysel disaster that saw English clubs banned from European competition for 5 years, which admittedly harmed the nation’s competitive potential, but also steered England towards turning football into the family-friendly event that is today.
That is because hooliganism is all but gone in modern English football, or at least it’s nowhere near what it used to be 30 years ago with Germany also following suit, instead, the scandals of English hooligans have been replaced by their counterparts in Argentina, Turkey, Greece, Brazil, and Eastern Europe, for the most part. Still, while the Premier League has gotten rid of it, hooligans are still an issue at lower levels of competition, such as Wrexham’s.
Welcome to Wrexham shows the efficacy of new methods to combat violence in sports, such as bans against radical supporters and careful police vetting that affects the young couple profiled in the episode, which really drives home the idea of change. It also underlines the enhanced reputational risks that Wrexham has to deal with under its new Hollywood ownership, as the club seeks to establish its brand beyond Welsh borders, thus coming across partly as a history lesson and also as an advert within the ad for the Reynolds and McElhenney era.
On the other hand, “Sack the Gaffer” brings home exactly the kind of Football Manager drama that makes Welcome to Wrexham so entertaining at times, as Reynolds and McElhenney struggle with the idea of showing Parkinson the door. The bit sees McElhenney seek advice from the Philadelphia Eagles coach and owner amidst a wave of angry fan tweets hurled at Parkinson, although ultimately common sense prevails.
As both men put it, Parkinson inherited a team that was mostly put together for a different coach, kind of like getting a bad hand at FIFA’s Ultimate Team — it’s their job to make sure he’s given the right conditions to thrive in, and only then can they pass judgment on the output. Luckily this coincides with a fine run of results for Parkinson’s team which takes the team all the way up to third place in the league as the January transfer window -and the episode- comes to a close.
The chapter also highlights one crucial plot point that Welcome to Wrexham has always made clear: Reynolds and McElhenney are running the club at a loss right now, with every passing season costing them close to $1.3m, out of which nearly $900k comes from wages paid to players that should be our of their reach and fro whom they pay a premium as the National League's new rich boys. After all, part of the decision that keeps Parkinson aboard is that he is a manager of much more caliber than Wrexham (the polar opposite to Ted Lasso), and the same goes for star striker Paul Mullin.
Now, while more critical football fans might think modern tactics in the sport and FIFA rarely allow for a 2-man striker partnership, Parkinson ultimately decides that is exactly what Wrexham needs to take things to the next level. This is where Wrexham gets its Braveheart moment, as McElhenney puts it, with the winter signing of English goalscorer Ollie Palmer setting up next week's episodes.
It bears saying that all of these names are still at the club, because as Welcome to Wrexham’s popularity soars in America, thanks to Reynolds’ Deadpool allure, so does the potential for the show to last for more than one season. All great sports dynasties are the product of years of thinking and hard work, and the actors’ backing of their manager shows that they’re in it for the long run, no matter the cost. Luckily, everyone's here to watch.