Wrexham's fairytale tax will be costly in League One and that's where the real test begins

Rob McElhenney’s arrival was the worst kept secret.

The Wrexham AFC co-chairman and It’s Always Sunny star was always coming to Wrexham. The final day of the League Two season. Promotion secured. Definitely coming. Actually, he’d already landed. Touched ground. Flown private, not commercial. Yes, someone was tracking the planes. One landed in Hawarden from Los Angeles. And who else flies from Los Angeles to Hawarden? Fine. Where was he then? Had he stopped at the hotel? Had he already showed up? Had he snuck in a different gate? Had something gone wrong?

Of course not. McElhenney arrived, with 45 minutes before kick-off to spare. The 47-year-old approached the crowd not like a god or a king but a dude in casual clothing. He signed autographs. He laughed. All through the iron gate of the SToK Cae Ras separating him from a cluster of fans of all ages and national affiliation.

“I feel like I’m in jail,” McElhenney jibed from the other side of the bars. Laughter roared. Bodies shifted and shoved to get a peek. No one else could technically resonate. If Wrexham feels like anything these days, it is not jail.

Nothing seems to go wrong in this patch of north Wales, not really. It’s one of the masterstrokes of the new co-owners’ takeover: that this gritty, hard-done club and city can resemble a piece of paradise. Where dreams come true. Where trains are named after you and arrive on time. Where Wrexham win at the death against the League Two champions – their quietly-becoming rivals Stockport County with their reliable flyover planes – on the season’s final day because Ollie Palmer and former-Hatter Andy Cannon deliver the goods.

It’s a solid projection, curated by a documentary crew working on fumes, passion and the production nous of movie and television geniuses. That this perception remains after an incoming third season of the Emmy-award winning docuseries is laudable. Football is never so full of fairytale endings and happiness, not this present edition anyway. Even in Netflix edits.

Not everything in this place is rose-petalled. There are bits that chafe. The globalisation of the club is both a boon and a burden, depending on who you ask. The grandiose lights from abroad bring money but also scrutiny. More people means more competition for tickets. Prices go up for hoodies. Bedsheets are hung in protest of match bans. There’s always a camera pointing somewhere, and probably another getting the long shot. Politicians want a bite. That’s the fairytale tax.

Wrexham co-chairman McElhenney celebrates Andy Cannon's goal on Saturday
(Image: Jacob King/PA Wire.)

Even so, it’s difficult not to get swept up in it all. This is the story: Wrexham have won two promotions (their first-ever back-to-back) in the three years since a Hollywood takeover that baffled and bemused. The runners-up spot in League Two is theirs, as is a berth in League One. Plus all that global allure.

An hour after the final whistle, the air within the SToK Cae Ras pulsed with the echoes of the Declan Swans. Cannon, still in his dirt-stained kit and face red, confirmed something was planned: beers, singing, Las Vegas to come. It was the least they deserved. But it wasn’t about what they deserved. “The boys are playing through pain every game. I count myself as well,” Cannon told the Mirror. “I've been going through pain every game. It's very tough, and people on the outside don't know the ins and outs, but we're going into every game, and I'm not sure everyone's 100% all the time. But that's what we've got. We've got a good mentality in the players, and players willing to go out and give it their all.”

Cannon’s remarks were the first hints that this season wasn’t as nonplussed as the headlines of an automatic promotion spot, second on the bounce and five wins to finish the season would suggest. Wrexham are hardly a team to pity (they’re squad wages outweigh anything League Two has to offer), yet the automatic filter applied at the club’s mention makes success seem like an inevitability in this game. That pressure can wobble anyone.

Andy Cannon celebrates scoring the winner against Stockport County
(Image: Ben Roberts Photo/Getty Images)

Pressed on the mentality of it all, Cannon pointed to manager Phil Parkinson. The former League One boss vets players before their arrival into his squad and while doubts swirled of whether Parkinson would be the man to keep up the journey, Cannon stood firm. “It’s all down to him.”

Even so, it’s difficult not to draw another line to the owners’ box in this meticulous character-judging calculus. Making his way out of the tunnel from the post-match party and into the chilly April air was McElhenney. He greeted everyone on the pitch. He also recognised everyone: players, players’ families, docuseries crew members, camera operators, coaching staff members, their families. For those he didn’t, he extended his hand. “Nice to meet you.” Now, he knew.

Perhaps it’s nothing. Or, perhaps it’s something we’ll all go back to when considering the grand scheme of putting together a club capable of competing at the next level but not compromising itself.

Wrexham co-chairman Rob McElhenney celebrates on the pitch with the players' families
(Image: Jacob King/PA Wire)





Wrexham co-chairman Rob McElhenney at the SToK Cae Ras Racecourse
(Image: Jacob King/PA Wire)

The task is large. Yet, there was an understated tranquillity to Saturday’s affair. Promotion was already secured. A final game of the season was a formality, albeit try telling that to the 12,652 fans in attendance (the largest attendance of the season). Before kick-off, a plane made its rounds reminding everyone who the League Two champions were, a cheeky sequel in itself. Stockport’s Paddy Madden lifted an imaginary trophy above his head and the home support rained pelters down at him. When Cannon scored the winner, the air splintered for a second.

It’s easy to view beating Stockport on the final day as the perfect bookend. A sign of things to come next season. Saturday marked the potential last chapters of many: the temporary Kop, Arthur Okonkwo in goal, fellow keepers Mark Howard and Rob Lainton, defenders Callum McFadzean, Ben Tozer, Aaron Hayden and Jordan Tunnicliffe. Even Luke Young (the squad’s longest-serving player) is out of contract come summer.

“There's the possibility of players moving on and that is the hard part of any manager's job but we also know that we've got to evolve as a club and we'll try and do that,” Parkinson confirmed afterwards.

Wrexham's Ollie Palmer celebrates scoring Wrexham's equaliser against Stockport County
(Image: Jacob King/PA Wire)

Yet, Saturday’s match had the hallmarks of a first. To beat Stockport suggests (and suggests is key) that next season’s challenge is being taken seriously as soon as last month. Here, the real test has already begun. Because it's not so much a new season as it is an entirely different movie. Talks are ongoing about transfers and squad bolstering. A training ground is paramount. A permanent Kop too. As the competition cranks up, so do the financial requirements, the necessity for ruthlessness. The fun-loving bedlam of this rom-com’s opening scenes is giving way to the gritty part.

If the question is what will come of the Disney-happy club when “the harder version” of football comes knocking — when crisis hits, when fans turn on a manager or a signing doesn’t perform — the answer is: they’re working on it. And perhaps the hierarchy here can maintain the heart they’ve exalted in the last three years as they bid to traverse further up the football pyramid. And perhaps they write their own operational manual for How To Football. For now, the meaty DIY chapters await. During which the fairytale filter will likely fade.

But for all the cynics (some gleeful) revelling in the prospect of Wrexham getting “a dose of reality” in the next stage of their adventure, there’s something of undeniable substance here, anchored in the real-life people who feel almost as gracious for the investment as they do proud that someone has finally recognised they deserve it. Smiles abound. The songs at full-time still carry that sliver of catharsis. For all the talk of fairytales, these parts are crucially rooted in reality.

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