Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds have proven themselves to be the perfect owners for Wrexham.
The Hollywood duo took the reigns at the Racecourse Ground back in 2021, taking ownership of the Red Dragons from their Supporters Trust.
There is something of a stigma toward American owners in the EFL and the fact the pair are major celebrities who seemingly had little prior knowledge of football no doubt raised some eyebrows.
Rob McElhenney was inspired to buy Wrexham thanks to Sunderland, with the Always Sunny star falling in love with the game after watching the Sunderland Till I Die documentary on Netflix.
Ryan Reynolds was then brought on board and it has been nothing but success for the duo since they decided to buy the Welsh outfit.
Phil Parkinson has guided Wrexham to back-to-back promotions, ending a 15-year stint in the National League and seeing the club play in League One for the first time in their history.
What Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds never do at Wrexham games
While Parkinson obviously deserves a lot of credit, McElhenney and Reynolds should be praised for how they have run the club over the last few years.
In a rather wise move from the actors, they have, for the most part, stayed away from the footballing side of things, leaving that to the experts.
Now, when speaking to Birmingham City owner Tom Brady on his YouTube channel recently, McElhenney has revealed one thing he and Reynolds ‘very specifically’ never do when they attend Wrexham games.
He said: “Listen more than you talk. Ryan and I, who talk for a living, recognise that this is all about the community, it’s all about the people that come to the stadiums and have filled these stadiums for 100 years.
“The NFL was founded in what the 1920s and these teams [have been around] 150 years. Wrexham was founded in 1864, while the US was in the middle of a civil war, they founded a football club.
“Ryan and I very specifically stay out of the locker room. I mean we go in and we talk to the guys but we never have pep talks, we try to stay away from all football operations.”
Why Wrexham are lucky to have Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds
A National League side being bought out by two Holywood actors did have serious potential to go very wrong.
There have been far too many horror stories across the EFL over the years of terrible owners taking over a club and running it into the ground, either via poor decisions on the footballing side or by stripping the club down to the bare bones in order to profit financially.
However, three and a bit years on, it is clear McElhenney and Reynolds are not, and likely never will be, those types of owners.
The duo care deeply about Wrexham as a town and community and have backed the football club heavily.
Wrexham smashed their transfer record twice during the 2024 summer transfer window and are now on course for a third-straight promotion, in no small part due to the wise decision-making of their owners.
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