Wrexham have done it again. The Red Dragons followed up their National League title success by finishing second in the 2023-24 League Two table, sealing a return to the third-tier of English football after a 19-year absence.
Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney have completely transformed the Welsh club since completing their takeover back in February 2021, capturing the imagination of fans across the globe. The Hollywood owners’ hands-on approach has also made them popular within the Wrexham dressing room, though some difficult decisions have had to be made regarding which players will be sticking around for the next stage of their remarkable journey.
The promotion celebrations were cut short for some last week, as Wrexham announced their retained list for 2024. Club-captain Ben Tozer and first-team skipper Luke Young were not offered new contracts, while Rob Lainton, Aaron Hayden, Jordan Tunnicliffe, Callum McFadzean, Owen Cushion and Dan Davies were also released, and now have to endure the uncertainty that comes with being part of the free agency pool.
It shouldn’t take too long for Wrexham’s eight castoffs to find new homes, though, especially if they are open to taking on a new challenge across the pond. MLS clubs have a huge chance to capitalise on the Red Dragons’ unprecedented popularity in the United States by targeting these players in the summer transfer window, and would be foolish to pass it up.
‘Welcome to Wrexham’
Reynolds and McElhenney’s smartest move to date was getting the Disney and HBO documentary ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ off the ground, which has helped them tap into a new audience. The ground-breaking series gives viewers a sneak peak into how the club is run, but also shines a light on the working-class town and how much the Red Dragons mean to the community.
American fans probably only tuned in out of curiosity initially, drawn in by the two Hollywood stars at the center of the project, but the fact ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ is already into its third series proves that they are now emotionally invested in the fate of the club. According to statistics for the past month from Parrot Analytics, the demand to watch the documentary is 17-times that of the average series in the U.S., and it is in the top 2.7 percent in its market.
‘Welcome to Wrexham’ was named the outstanding unstructured reality program at the 2023 Emmys, and Reynolds joined ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ star McElhenney on stage to accept the award as Deadpool – the world-renowned Marvel character he has now played in four different films (including 2009’s X–Men Origins: Wolverine). Both men are marketing geniuses, which is why it has been suggested that ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ will run for at least two more seasons, and the players have all benefited from being inexorably tied to the American duo.
Becoming ‘America’s team’
There is no other club outside the Championship that enjoys the same level of publicity as Wrexham. Star names such as Paull Mullin, Elliot Lee, Tozer, Ollie Palmer and Thomas O’Connor have experienced new levels of fame, and at this point they are probably as well known in the United States as they are in Wales.
“There’s probably 5,000 U.S. households that have an annual subscription to watch Wrexham games live,” club director Shaun Harvey told The Guardian in March. “In isolation that might not sound like a lot, but it’s a massive amount in comparison to the majority of other clubs in the EFL.”
Reynolds and McElhenney have also paid for two promotion parties in Las Vegas, and the squad have rubbed shoulders with more high-profile celebrities during the latest one, including Dutch DJ Tiesto and rapper Lil Jon – who wore a Wrexham scarf while performing at the Hakkasan nightclub.
“One of my intentions is to make Wrexham ‘America’s team.’ I don’t know why we couldn’t do that,” McElhenney declared back in 2022. Just two years on, that goal no longer feels unrealistic.
Alexis Guerreros, co-host of CBS Sports Golazo’s ‘Morning Footy, is among those who feel the club is on the right path, as he said after seeing them get out of League Two at the first time of asking: “Wrexham and their TV show and their rise up the ranks is doing as much for soccer in America as probably the MLS is doing right now.”
‘Hype is fantastic’
MLS should really be keeping a close eye on the futures of any players featured in the ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ documentary, because anyone affiliated with its unprecedented success will attract more fans to the stadium. Sixteen of the League Two clubs that hosted Wrexham this term recorded their highest attendances of the entire campaign, including MK Dons, Bradford City and Crewe Alexandra.
“We have brought a lot of revenue into clubs,” said head coach Parkinson. “You look at the game at Colchester, it was a sell-out ground, and that was like three home games rolled into one for them.” At home, Wrexham saw a new record crowd of 12,478 attend their 2-0 win over AFC Wimbledon on January 3, with over half a million fans flocking to the Racecourse Gound since Reynolds and McElhenney’s initial takeover three years ago.
“The hype about the place is fantastic,” said Wrexham striker Steven Fletcher, who previously played in the Premier League for Burnley, Wolves and Sunderland. “When you come in, even for just training days, there’s loads of people around the stadium. I’ve played for Premier League teams and you don’t see that.”
Tozer played a vital role in Wrexham’s National League title triumph before making 29 appearances for the club in League Two, and was one of the most recognisable faces in the squad. His co-captain, Young, meanwhile, was the club’s longest-serving player before his exit, as he racked up 239 league appearances after his arrival in 2018.
It would be a baffling oversight if at least a few MLS clubs did not move for one or both of them, even just to get a small taste of the “hype”
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Getty ImagesWhat’s next?
Several MLS attendance records have been broken already this season thanks to Messi, but they’re still only averaging crowds of 23,000, which is significantly lower than any of Europe’s big five leagues. The quality of soccer in the United States is improving year on year, but MLS is still some way off becoming a true global superpower, and it will be necessary to find creative new ways to attract more fans to matches.
Doing more to lean into Wrexham’s success feels like the most obvious play, and eight players who have been on the inside of their rapid rise to prominence under Reynolds and McElhenney are now waiting for a call to get back in the game. Unveiling a former Red Dragons star in the next transfer window would cause a real stir, especially at the clubs who have not made great starts to the 2024 MLS season.
Tozer, Young, Lainton, Hayden, Tunnicliffe, McFadzean are all past-their peak EFL players, while Cushion and Davies are still raw talents who have yet to find their way in the game, but whether or not they can perform in MLS is secondary to how many fans they could attract just by being named in a starting squad.
Wrestling the limelight away from Messi and Miami is impossible, but there is room for the rest of the league to grow if they target the ex-Wrexham servants who all contributed in some way to one of the most compelling stories of the modern era.
MLS’ big problem
According to data from Google Trends between January 1 to April 14, 2024, Inter Miami are the only MLS side more popular than Wrexham in the United States, based on top searches. There are also just five MLS clubs who are more popular than the Red Dragons outside of their own state (Charlotte FC, New England Revolution, FC Cincinnati, DC United and Sporting KC), which shows that the country’s top soccer competition is still struggling to generate national interest.
As great as Lionel Messi is, he can’t carry MLS single-handedly. Miami are becoming a major force on and off the pitch due to his presence, but the rest of the division is now lagging behind, and jumping on the Wrexham bandwagon could be a way to start bridging the gap.
Five of the players that Red Dragons boss Phil Parkinson deemed surplus to requirements are aged 30 or over, but that doesn’t mean they have nothing left to offer; Tozer was on Newcastle’s books in the early stages of his career and McFadzean has extensive League One experience under his belt from spells at Sunderland, Crewe and Plymouth. Then there’s 27-year-old Wolves academy graduate Hayden, who would have played more often in recent years had it not been for bad luck with injuries.
All three defenders could be useful squad players at MLS level, if not fully-fledged starters, but more importantly hold commercial value that could help boost the profile of a number of soccer franchises. The option to invest in potential is also there, with teenage duo Owen Cushion and Dan Davies now on the market, and it would be a great story for any club if they were able to turn either of the Wrexham boys into household names in the future.
Strike while the iron’s hot
Wrexham embarked on a pre-season tour of the U.S. in 2023, which was a huge success. Parkinson’s side pulled off memorable wins over the LA Galaxy and Manchester United, and Americans from North Carolina to California turned up to the club’s fan parks to pose next to cardboard cut-outs of Reynolds and McElhenney and sample Welsh cuisine.
The Red Dragons will be back again this summer for friendlies against Premier League sides Bournemouth and Chelsea, and will also be heading to Canada to take on the Vancouver Whitecaps. The tour will begin the day after MLS’ primary transfer window opens, at which point Wrexham fever will be gripping the States once again, which may be the ideal time to swoop for their latest crop of released players.
Careful consideration must always go into filling international roster slots given MLS clubs are only allocated eight, but giving one to a Wrexham hero definitely wouldn’t be a waste. Even if they didn’t end up playing that many minutes, the potential marketing benefits alone justify the relatively small salary outlay.
They would have to move quickly, though, because players like Tozer, Young and Hayden will definitely attract interest from other lower-league English teams. All three could conceivably continue earning a living in League Two next season, but it’s likely that any offer from MLS would turn their heads, and it makes sense to strike while the iron is still hot from Wrexham’s latest promotion success.
