Even for a club dubbed ‘Hollywood FC’ and whose players recently starred alongside Channing Tatum in a Super Bowl advert, Danny DeVito high-fiving supporters in a Los Angeles bar to celebrate a stoppage-time winner remains one of the more surreal moments this season.
Ollie Rathbone’s darting run and angled shot from 20 yards to break the deadlock against Barnsley was certainly worthy of such an effusive reaction from the 80-year-old as he joined fellow It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia co-stars in saluting Wrexham’s goal.
But still, DeVito is acting royalty, and this was a match being played two tiers below the Premier League and 5,200 miles away. The footage of DeVito’s celebrations quickly went viral with comments such as, “Just when you thought you’d seen it all!”
To those with inside knowledge of Wrexham’s rise under co-owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney — victory over Charlton Athletic on Saturday secured a third straight promotion — DeVito’s presence at LA’s Cosm Bar in December to cheer on the Welsh club was less surprising.
As a long-standing fan of Arsenal, DeVito became something of a sounding board for McElhenney when he was first considering a move into British football on the back of watching Netflix documentary Sunderland ‘Til I Die during the Covid lockdown.
Then, after helping his It’s Always Sunny colleagues get up to speed with the sport, he’s continued to offer support, even if — unlike the show’s other stars Kaitlin Olson, Charlie Day and Glenn Howerton — the New Jersey-born actor is yet to watch at Wrexham’s SToK Cae Ras home.
DeVito certainly enjoyed December’s win over Barnsley, though. As did the entire Wrexham party headed by McElhenney and wife Olson that LA afternoon, even allowing for some learning of the winning goal a few seconds before it was shown on the giant screen.
Club director Humphrey Ker punching the air in celebration gave the game away. Unlike McElhenney, who, when in the U.S., prefers to follow events as if live despite the TV footage having a delay of between 20 and 35 seconds, the Old Etonian couldn’t resist reaching for his phone whenever the group message chat featuring Wrexham’s board members buzzes into life.
His impatience was rewarded against Barnsley by a message from fellow director Shaun Harvey relaying news of Rathbone’s winner from the stadium. Cue a shout of jubilation that meant those sitting in the near vicinity had a very good idea as to what was coming next, unlike McElhenney and DeVito who, thanks to being out of earshot, were able to enjoy the goal in real time.
Danny Devito giving out high fives as Wrexham nick it against Barnsley.
What a world we live in 😍🌎 #WxmAFC pic.twitter.com/7EeBhTgTco
— RobRyanRed – Wrexham AFC Podcast (@RobRyanRed) December 3, 2024
Rathbone’s winner proved to be one of many dramatic moments that helped create the rarest of Tinsel Town productions — namely, a second sequel that lives up to both the original and the first follow-up, as Wrexham made history by becoming the first club to win three promotions in a row to go from non-League to what is now called the Championship.
Here is that story.
As the curtain came down on Wrexham’s U.S. and Canada tour in late July with a resounding 4-1 victory over Vancouver Whitecaps, there was much to be happy about among the travelling party.
On the field, Phil Parkinson’s side had emerged unbeaten from a testing three-game schedule also featuring West Coast meetings with Bournemouth and a Chelsea side featuring Christopher Nkunku, Levi Colwill, Noni Madueke, Robert Sanchez and Reece James.
Off it, this previously provincial club had once again underlined their standing as a bona fide global attraction, as fans flocked from far and wide to watch a team many had only previously seen on the Welcome to Wrexham documentary.
Among those willing to travel huge distances across North America to attend the tour finale at Vancouver’s impressive BC Place — one of two World Cup 2026 host venues Wrexham played in last summer along with Levi’s Stadium, home to the San Francisco 49ers — were the Allyn family.
Now familiar faces in and around Wrexham after joining the board as minority investors in the autumn, back then the New York family’s possible future role in helping Reynolds and McElhenney realise their big ambitions was known only to the club’s inner circle.
Nevertheless, Eric, as head of a family who had owned global medical device company Welch Allyn before selling for $2billion (£1.5bn at current rates) in 2015, daughter Kaleen et al still made a big impression in Vancouver.
It had become clear to the Wrexham hierarchy during talks over a possible link-up prior to the tour just how aligned this philanthropical family’s thinking was with the owners, and particularly the community element highlighted in the documentary.
But, the sheer excitement on their faces in Vancouver at being introduced to Wayne Jones, landlord of The Turf and breakout star from series one of Welcome to Wrexham, proved to those in the room just how emotionally invested they had already become in Wrexham.
Jones has since become a good friend to the family, particularly Eric who pops into the pub whenever over from the States. Allyn Snr even joined Jones and his regulars on the Easter Monday trip to Blackpool, where, when playing pool in a seaside pub before the match, the boardroom titan was serenaded with the jocular chant, “Where were you when we were s***?”
By selling an equity stake to the Allyn family, Wrexham’s high-profile owners brought in welcome financial backing at a time when facing a series of major infrastructure projects, in particular the new Kop stand development that had stalled the previous year.
This hold-up has since been remedied, meaning work on both the stand and a new £1m ($1.3m) pitch, complete with undersoil heating, can get under way now the final home game of the season has been played. The Kop’s projected opening date is summer 2026.
Further improvements are also planned to Wrexham’s historic home down the line, the intention of a masterplan drawn up by renowned architect firm Populous being to eventually raise the capacity to around 28,000.
A new training ground is also badly needed. Wrexham’s rapid rise through the leagues has left the off-field operation scrambling to keep up and nowhere is this more keenly felt than in the lack of a permanent base.
In recent years, the club has rented facilities, primarily Colliers Park from the Welsh Football Association. The players then change at The Racecourse Ground before making the six-mile round trip by car.
This is fine in non-League and even League Two, where many clubs still have to make do and mend. A third promotion, however, means Wrexham are moving to a level where players are used to a lot better than piling into the back of a team-mate’s motor, often caked in mud, before driving back to the ground for a shower.
Future transfers could be scuppered by such a setup, especially if a transfer target has an alternative offer from a club who have invested significantly in their own training ground.
None of these projects come cheap. Hence the need for not only wealthy partners such as the Allyn family but also a healthy balance sheet and sensible husbandry of day-to-day operations.
An insurance policy taken out this season for the first time to help cover promotion bonuses (capped at £850,000) is a good example of the latter. By taking out the policy before a ball was kicked last summer, Wrexham have covered a substantial chunk of the expected final £1.449m bill, which includes monies owed to clubs from now activated clauses in past transfer deals.
As for the financials, turnover soared to £26.7m on the back of several lucrative sponsorship deals, most notably with United Airlines and SToK Cold Brew Coffee, during the 2023-24 League Two promotion season.
Wrexham still made a loss for the 12 months to June 30, 2024 of £2.7m but the figures — and particularly how 52 per cent of that club record income had come from overseas, mainly North America — meant there was genuine confidence going into the new season that a third consecutive tilt at promotion, most likely via the play-offs, was on.
November dawned with Wrexham enjoying life back in League One.
There had been a couple of defeats in those opening three months of the season, including a somewhat chastening 3-1 loss at Birmingham City on a Monday night when all eyes had been on St Andrew’s thanks to the presence of David Beckham, Birmingham City co-owner Tom Brady and McElhenney in front of the live Sky Sports TV cameras.
Otherwise, though, things had gone well with the club’s first 13 games at this level for nearly two decades having yielded 25 points and third place in the table.
October’s final outing at Charlton Athletic also showcased Wrexham’s growing commercial standing. Not only were half-and-half scarves featuring both teams on sale in Charlton’s club shop — considered sacrilege by some — but the London club also deliberately targeted international fans drawn in by the Welcome to Wrexham documentary during the weeks leading up to the game.
The upshot, Charlton’s then chief executive Charlie Methven revealed subsequently to the Where’s The Money Gone? podcast, was a bumper 24,692 crowd — up 10,000 on the season’s average — that included 1,650 tickets sold to international Wrexham fans (on top of the 2,647 fans in the designated away seats), plus a further 3,000 to 4,000 from the Greater London area whose interest had been piqued.
Only 11 of the 300 half-and-half scarves in the shop remained unsold, Methven added.
Parkinson’s side justified the hype with a hugely impressive away performance in the capital that, but for a controversial 97th-minute penalty for the hosts, would have earned a deserved three points. Such a good showing, coming on the back of an already impressive start to life back in League One, left the Wrexham hierarchy in something of a quandary.
Having agreed on a competitive budget back in the summer designed to deliver on the pre-season expectation of a sustained play-offs challenge, should the stakes be upped further in the January transfer window?
Michael Williamson, appointed chief executive the previous May, convened a meeting over Zoom in November to gauge the feelings of Reynolds and McElhenney. According to club sources, who, like everyone spoken to for this piece, asked to remain anonymous to protect professional relationships, he also put together projected budgets for the future, should Wrexham go on to reach the Championship.
These included an average wage bill over the past five years for clubs who had just about survived in the second tier, another for those who had established themselves, and another for how much money would realistically be needed to reach the Premier League.
Parkinson’s views were also sought along with other senior figures behind-the-scenes before, eventually, the green light was given to go for it financially in January. In many ways, this decision was a reflection of both how well the team had done on the pitch and the financial muscle that Wrexham were up against off it.
The 2024-25 season has brought unprecedented levels of spending to League One, with champions Birmingham City leading the way. Bankrolled by U.S. hedge fund Knighthead Capital, they smashed all manner of transfer records during a £25m summer spree, including Jay Stansfield, who become the most expensive signing of all-time at this level.
But plenty of others have also been willing to spend. Huddersfield Town paid £4.25m in January to buy striker Joe Taylor from Luton Town and forward Dion Charles from Bolton Wanderers.
Bolton and Wycombe Wanderers also invested heavily, taking the division’s overall spend for the campaign beyond £43m — more than the previous eight seasons combined according to the Financial Times.
Initially, Wrexham’s contribution to this colossal sum was minimal. They did twice break the club record transfer fee last summer to sign Rathbone and Mo Faal but the fees (£375,000 and £590,000 respectively) were relatively small.
Once the go-ahead had been given by the owners at that November meeting, however, things changed markedly with Sam Smith arriving from Reading in a £2m deal.
Another £500,000 was spent on Hull City wing-back Ryan Longman, while Wrexham also agreed to take over Jay Rodriguez’s Burnley contract and add another 12 months on top after initially trying to sign the striker on loan.
All three added to an already substantial wage bill, Wrexham’s ambitions under Hollywood ownership having been reflected these past few seasons by a willingness to pay the going rate.
Arthur Okonkwo, a leading contender to be player of the season after joining as a free agent last summer following his release by Arsenal, is a prime example. Wrexham recognised he would probably have to become their highest earner to have any chance of landing their first-choice target.
Their opening offer reflected that, with no attempt made to lowball someone whose wages when on loan during 2023-24 had been 60 per cent covered by Arsenal. This respectful approach paid off when Okonkwo, after spending several weeks considering his options, became the first summer signing on July 1.
George Dobson was another key capture from the free-transfer market after word reached Parkinson that his long-standing midfield target was not, as had first been mooted, joining Hungarian side Fehervar from Charlton. His deal was the quickest to be concluded all summer, according to club insiders.
Others to join before the squad flew to the United States and Canada in mid-July were defender Lewis Brunt from Leicester City, wing-back Seb Revan from Aston Villa and goalkeeper Callum Burton, who joined on a free after leaving Plymouth Argyle.
Then, after Parkinson spent the time away formulating his options, Wrexham quickly added defender Dan Scarr from Plymouth and Rathbone from Rotherham United on their return. Record-signing Faal arrived shortly before the window closed after attempts to prise Michael Smith away from Sheffield Wednesday had failed.
Fast forward to November and after adding Matty James and Jon Dadi Bodvarsson to the squad as free agents amid an injury crisis that had included in-form Jack Marriott suffering a broken leg, the green light was given by the owners to spend big in the New Year.
Targets were quickly identified, which sometimes meant reviving talks with players who Parkinson had previously shown interest in. Longman had been wanted the previous summer only for an untimely injury to scupper a potential move. Likewise James, until it was decided to instead go for Dobson.
A fresh enquiry was also made regarding Wednesday striker Michael Smith with Harvey attending a game at Hillsborough to get a definitive answer over the 33-year-old’s availability after weeks of being stalled.
Sam Smith, the Reading forward, was the most expensive option on Parkinson’s list of strikers but talks cranked up once Michael Smith had been ruled out. He duly arrived on the final day of January alongside Rodriguez who, as a recognition of his service in Burnley colours, had been allowed to leave for a nominal fee despite manager Scott Parker still seeing a role for the striker.
All three would go on to help get Wrexham over the line.
Having passed the 1,000-game mark as a manager midway through the season, Parkinson has plenty of experience to fall back on. It also means he’s not afraid of making big decisions.
As the ink was still drying on the deals to sign Sam Smith and Rodriguez on the final day of January, he recognised Wrexham’s season had reached a crossroads. A first home defeat of the season against Stevenage three days earlier had capped a miserable start to the year with five January games yielding just four points.
Change was needed, along with a refocus ahead of the weekend trip to Crawley Town. Wrexham were due to fly south, which meant training could take place at Colliers Park on the Friday morning rather than stopping en route to borrow facilities, as most League One clubs do.
With new signings Smith and Rodriguez in the building, Parkinson named his starting XI to face Crawley and then took only those players to training. His team selection would trigger a huge debate among supporters when revealed an hour before kick-off the following day, as a clearly out-of-sorts Okonkwo was dropped for veteran Mark Howard.
Ollie Palmer, a loan target for League Two Bradford City among others in the January window, was also bombed out of the 18-man matchday squad along with Paul Mullin, while Elliot Lee dropped to the bench after operating as a No 10 behind a lone striker (invariably Palmer) for much of the previous two months.
In came Smith and Rodriguez, the latter operating in a similar role to Lee despite playing most of his career in the Premier League as a striker. The changes worked, a 2-1 win at Crawley kick-starting a remarkable run that, in time, would take Wrexham to promotion.
Along the way, Okonkwo returned to the side but there was to be no such reprieve for Mullin and Palmer, just a few months after the pair had played a role in the Deadpool & Wolverine film starring Reynolds, as Parkinson stuck to a formation that was effectively 3-5-1-1.
Explaining the thinking behind a switch he first made in late November at home to Exeter City, Parkinson, fresh from clinching a sixth career promotion, tells The Athletic: “I felt we needed a link player. We’d been at this level before (as a management team) so knew what it could be like.
“With two up front, it was making us… I won’t say predictable, but we needed to adapt. Particularly in possession. If you look at the games where Jay has come into those pockets, it drags the centre-back out. And then we can slide it down the side for Sam. I do think we have found those spaces well.
“This system also gives Ollie and Dobbo (Dobson) the licence to be more progressive as well. The shift in dynamic really helped us.”
Results certainly back up the switch, with Wrexham losing just two of 17 games with Rodriguez playing off Smith en route to clinching runners-up spot. Even the second of those defeats — a truly abject 2-0 loss at Reading in mid-March — again underlined the value of the manager’s vast experience.
Publicly, Parkinson made much that night of referee Ed Duckworth’s decision to award Reading a penalty. “We’ve got a bit of history with the ref and I think that he’s been waiting for this moment,” he told the media. Duckworth had dismissed Parkinson two years earlier following a goalless draw at Barnet during the National League title run-in.
Behind closed doors, however, the Wrexham manager was adamant his players would not be allowed to use the spot kick as an excuse for such a lethargic display. Instead, brutal honesty was the order of the day. “We are not hiding behind a contentious refereeing decision,” he explained to the squad once back in Wales. “We could and should have done a lot better.”
Again, it was a case of dipping into his own managerial back catalogue — and specifically the never-to-be-forgotten victory over Notts County when Ben Foster’s stoppage-time penalty save sealed a decisive three points in a thrilling race to escape non-League.
What many forget about that 3-2 Easter Monday win is how it came just three days after a crushing loss at FC Halifax Town — the team’s first in 27 league games — had threatened to derail the push for an EFL return. Parkinson left his Halifax post-mortem until Sunday’s team meeting. “You might be expecting me to say we need to move on after our first defeat in 27 games,” he told the assembled players. “But I’m not. The bottom line is that just wasn’t good enough if we are going to get over the line.”
Having got the required response back then to beat Notts County, Parkinson’s approach again paid dividends this time around. Wrexham followed defeat in Reading with an equally precious 1-0 victory over Wycombe just four days later to reclaim second place.
Wycombe gave it a good go in response, even leapfrogging the Welsh club twice during the run-in, including as late as Good Friday to leave automatic promotion in their own hands with just three games to play.
However, a Wrexham victory at Blackpool just three days later on an afternoon when McElhenney, after delivering a stirring speech at the team hotel the day before, joined 2,100 overjoyed fans in the away section of Bloomfield Road saw the initiative wrestled back.
Then came the season’s decisive act, as Charlton manager Nathan Jones saw his pre-match jibe about the trip to Wrexham being akin to “going to the circus” fall flat as goals from Rathbone and two from Smith clinched all three points.
With Wycombe having lost 1-0 at Leyton Orient earlier in the day, the Hollywood ending that must seem an annual event to Wrexham’s new-found legion of celebrity supporters — A-listers such as Tatum and Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria have joined the owners at The Racecourse this season — had arrived.
(Lead artwork: Eamonn Dalton/The Athletic; Getty Images)
