01x01 - Dream

[bunniefuu]

- Excuse us.
- Thank you, guys.

Thank you, gents.

Keep moving!
Guys, move on!

- Keep it moving!
- Sorry, guys.

Keep going!

- Wow.
- Yes, yes, yes.

Not bad, right?

I don't think the goosebumps
are 'cause it's cold.

I'm just thinking about
how many thousands of people

have come to watch these games
over the last 150 years.

- Pretty incredible.
- Yeah.

Oh, wow!

- There you go.
- Come on, now.

Now, that's a stadium.

- Wow.
- Is that better?

So there is a real risk for us.

Yeah, I mean,
that's part of the anxiety.

Like, watching the team
lose last night,

you're thinking the investment
in this club just took a hit.

Yes.

And there is a version
of the story...

where we are villains...

- Where it doesn't...
- Oh, that's my usual story.

That's usually the story
in my head.

Yeah. It doesn't work,
and then we go,

"What are we gonna do?
We have to sell it."

- And then we're the bad guys.
- Yeah.

- f*ck that.
- f*ck that.

Yeah.

It's gonna work.

Come gather round, people

Wherever you roam

And admit that the waters
around you have grown

And accept it that soon

You'll be drenched to the bone

If your time to you
is worth savin'

Then you better start swimming

Or you'll sink like a stone

For the times,
they are a-changin'

Welcome to Wrexham

A diamond in the heart of Wales

This land of dragons

Coal, fire, and steel

Hollywood A-lister
Ryan Reynolds could be

about to take on
his next big role.

Fellow A-lister Rob McElhenney

is bidding with Reynolds.

They could be
about to launch a takeover

at Wrexham Football Club.

I'm hoping this is not
some big publicity stunt.

Ah, it's probably
just a joke on Twitter.

We've heard it all before,
so it'll go tits up, 100%.

Don't get me wrong.

If the intentions are good
and to move the club forward,

then fantastic, but we need
to know why Wrexham.

Welcome to Wrexham

E-A-G-L-E-S.
Eagles!

I'm from Philadelphia,

and I've always been
a sports fanatic.

I couldn't play anything,
but I always love watching it.

My whole family loved
the Eagles.

It was just something
that was a part of my life

from the time I can remember.

The team becomes
an extension of the city.

- Whoo! Whoo!
- Yeah!

Even as a kid,

I just remember that gave me
something to identify with.

E-A-G-L-E-S!
Eagles!

I grew up
in South Philadelphia...

On the corner of Moyamensing
and Dickinson.

The Philadelphia that I know

and the Philadelphia
as it identifies itself,

are people who work really hard
for everything that they have.

Oh, my God.

This is incredible.

Oh, my God.

This is crazy!

- This is all exactly the same.
- Exactly the same. Yeah.

Like, nothing has been changed.

And the best part about
this house was the outhouse...

An actual outhouse,

'cause they didn't have
downstairs plumbing.

So if you were down here

and you didn't want
to go upstairs,

you just went outside
to the outhouse.

- So, Leo...
- Ooh.

What would it be like
to share this room...

with your brother?

- Uh, is it this small?
- Yeah.

Like, it would be, like,
this exact room.

Honestly,
if I could take this, I would.

You would?

You want an iPod?

Who doesn't?

One of the things
that was really attractive

about Wrexham is, even though
I've never been there,

the town reminds me
of Philadelphia.

It's a working-class town.
It's a blue-collar town.

It's a town that has had
its ups and downs,

and they haven't had
all the opportunities

that a lot
of other people have had.

I feel like I know those people.

I grew up with those people.

I am one of those people.

Humphrey, what are the rules?

Well, the rules are

our team's trying
to put the ball in your goal.

You're trying to put it
in our goal.

That's really all you need
to know right now.

- Where am I going?
- The goal.

Yeah, Mom.

Hey!

Rob is a new convert

to the charms and joys
of football.

Rob and I have worked together
and we're friends.

I watch quite a lot of football

in the writers' room
during our lunch breaks.

Rob started to be like,
"What is this?

Why are you so obsessed
with this stupid game?"

My mind was racing

when I learned
about the English system.

The idea that
you can get promoted

into a league above you
and demoted

and kicked out of the league
is incredible.

The English
professional football system,

or pyramid,
consists of four tiers.

The Premier League
at the top of the pyramid,

that's the créme de la créme
of football

where you've got your Chelseas,

Manchester Uniteds.

And one tier down from that,
you've got the Championship,

then League One and League Two.

So the farther up
the pyramid you are,

the better the talent,
the bigger the prizes,

and thus the more profitable
your club becomes.

Teams can move between tiers
via promotion and relegation.

At the end of the season,
the best teams go up,

and the worst teams go down.

For the past 14 seasons,

Wrexham have been playing here,

below the pyramid,
in the National League,

the lowest level

of professional football
in England...

The tiers below
being semi-professional.

Being relegated
to the National League is...

A bit like football purgatory.

The wages are low.
The prize money is low.

It makes it very difficult

for clubs like Wrexham
that drop into it

to get back into the English
football league system.

Imagine, if you will,

the New York Yankees
lose 150 games in a season.

They finish dead last,

and they have
to drop down a league

and the following year

play against the likes
of the Toledo Mud Hens

and the Sacramento River Cats.

And if they keep losing enough

and they keep dropping leagues,

then eventually they end up

playing beer league softball
in Ithaca

or against f*cking
12-year-olds in Williams port.

And then I called
Humphrey, and I was like,

"If you had a club
that had an infrastructure

"that could at least support

"an even-ing
of the balance sheet,

"can't you theoretically
take a team that's

in the lowest league
and bring them to the top?"

Goal!

He said, "Yes."

But as I started to gather
more and more information,

I realized how expensive
it was going to be.

I have TV money,

but as I started to look
at how expensive

it actually was to run a club,

I realized that I needed
something more than TV money.

I needed...

movie-star money.

Sometimes you got to let
your heart lead you,

even if you know it's someplace

you know
you're not supposed to be.

More than that, I needed
superhero movie-star money.

Time to make
the chimi-f*cking-changas.

More than that probably,
as we ascended up the leagues,

I would need
alcohol-baron money.

Aviation American Gin.

And mobile-phone-services money,

and...

what other companies
does this bitch have?

- Cybersecurity.
- Cybersecurity money.

And... anybody?

What else has he got?

Ah!

What the f*ck?
That... I mean...

That was great.

In a PG-13 movie like this,

you get one "f*ck," two "shits,"
and a glass of white wine,

and then you say,
"Hang on to your PG-13 rating."

I grew up
in a working-class family,

and I have three older brothers.

My father struggled
in a number of different ways.

My dad started as a cop,
then became a food broker,

which sounds like a cover
for a CIA agent or something,

but that was his actual job.

Oh, my God, oh, my God,
oh, my God, oh, my God,

oh, my God, oh, my God!

The main place I got
validation from my father...

Like, if I was good at sports,

in my father's eyes,
I was doing all right.

So I played sports
long past the point

where I was, like,
really driven to play sports.

Go back to, like...
Yeah, right here.

- Yeah.
- Yeah. Here we go.

It carried on, it carried on
all through show business,

all that, so, you know,

it's like an unquenchable
thirst for validation.

Aah!

My father's been dead for years,
but, like,

it's, you know, you kind of...

Stuff doesn't really go away.

It's easier to sort of think
of him, you know,

the way I'm describing him,
as, like, a really hard-ass.

He would have thought
all of this was wild.

Like, you know, he didn't
really see any of the stuff

Dead pool forward,

so I think he would have thought
this was all pretty crazy.

Ryan's FaceTiming me.

Hey, you look great.

All you two do is
tell each other you look great.

Yeah. I know.
It's just constantly...

Why it's such
a successful friendship.

He seems insecure.

I don't really know Ryan
that well.

I've never met him in person
before this.

We met through social media
and then just became friends.

Great.
So that one should work,

but as long as it's not...
Yes, that should work.

Today is the call to
the Wrexham Supporters Trust.

Because it is a club
that is owned by the fans,

we have to persuade them
to vote us through

by a 75-25 margin.

It's quite a high bar,
but that was put in place

'cause it had terrible owners
in the past,

and so people wanted to make
sure that if they were gonna

vote for anyone,
it was the right person.

So, you know,
we created a proposal

and really made sure

that we conveyed to
the community our intentions.

In terms of trust,

they have been b*rned before

- by shady people.
- Mm-hmm.

But we're not
some shady businessmen

that can just, like,

if this goes south, like,
lurk into the shadows

and pretend like
it never happened

and just go back to our lives.

No.
People know where to find us.

Yes, yes.

At stake today is whether
or not we get to become

the next stewards
of Wrexham Football Club.

So if it goes south,
then we won't.

This is a very high-profile
thing with a lot at stake,

and we really don't want
to let them down,

and I think
we can speak to that.

I don't know
that we necessarily can speak

so much to,
"You have to trust us,"

'cause then it feels
a little Harold Hill to me.

- Yeah, great.
- And I feel like... yeah.

- Great. All right. Awesome.
- Great.

- All right.
- I will, uh...

I will see you soon.
Bye.

Ah, he got the last word in.

f*ck.
I got to...

Hello, everybody.
I hope you can hear me okay.

My name's Brian Phillips.

I'm the chair
of Wrexham Supporters Trust,

and I want to welcome members

and our special guests

to this very special
presentation evening.

- Please note...
- Sweating.

I would like
to invite Rob McElhenney

and Ryan Reynolds on screen.

Hey, hey.

They will talk you
through some key questions

about their proposed takeover
of Wrexham AFC.

We'll start with...
If you could talk us through

what yours and Rob's vision
for the club is

if members decide
to entrust it to you.

I think I just want to start
by ripping the Band-Aid off

and addressing the fact
that this is all pretty...

Pretty wild.

I'm sure it's got to be
a little disconcerting

that a Canadian and an American
are so interested in your club,

but we want to assure
everyone on this call

that we are taking this venture
very seriously.

I don't care
if you're a movie star.

I don't care
if you're driving a forklift.

When you're in a situation

where you're seeking
the approval of other people,

your brain is always going,
"They're gonna say no.

They don't... they're on to me."

Imposter syndrome
is in full effect.

Rob, could you answer first?

And I guess
it's the big question...

Why Wrexham AFC?

When I tell people

that the Eagles
winning the Super Bowl

was one of the greatest days
of my life...

It was top five greatest days
of my life...

That's it! They got it!

People who are supporters
of clubs

and sporting fans
across the world

know exactly what I'm talking
about, and I mean it.

I put it up there
with the birth of my children

and my wedding day

not because of what happened
on the field,

but because of what it meant to
an entire community of people

and to my relationships
with my friends

and my family members

and the entire city
of Philadelphia.

I really believe that we can
build something like that,

and I want to be there for that.

I want to be a part of that,

and I hope
that you will allow us

to help you
achieve something like that.

Should the majority
of the supporters

decide that we're the guys
for the job,

we would be honored
and thrilled,

and we would never,
ever once take that lightly.

We will laugh at ourselves,

but we will never laugh
at the situation.

Well, thank you, gentlemen,
for your time this evening.

- Thank you.
- Thank you, guys.

Appreciate it.

There you go.

And now
it's in the people's hands.

It is.

I thought
that went very, very well.

- Yeah.
- Agreed.

You know what was one
of my favorite parts was

when they asked
about the documentary

and you could see
the giant camera behind you...

- Oh, for real?
- Filming. Yes.

Yes, so I was so glad
you were like...

Right away, you were like,

"Oh, yeah, hell, yeah,
we're doing a documentary."

I was like, "Yeah,
we're making a documentary,

like,
right this f*cking second."

Well, what the f*ck?
That's your responsibility.

I can see a gigantic...

Is that an IMAX camera?
Like, what the f*ck?

A lot of people outside the UK

aren't even aware
that Wales is not in England.

It's a separate country.

It's on the west coast
of the UK,

and Wrexham's a town
of about 65,000 people

in the northeast of Wales.

Wrexham was a nice place
to grow up.

It was a really safe place

where communities pull together.

And of course,
when I was growing up,

we had
a really good football team.

As a child,
my father took me to games,

and I can remember back then,

we were what is now known
as the Championship

or the level
below the Premier League.

It's the third-oldest
professional club

in the world.

It's the oldest club in Wales,

and it plays at the Cae Ras,
or the Racecourse in English,

which is the oldest
international stadium

still in use
anywhere in the world.

And for many, many years,
Wrexham were Wales' best club.

And it's Thomas who takes it.

Oh, what a goal!
Mickey Thomas!

When I started watching Wrexham,

we had a team of heroes
in those days.

Wrexham's crowds would compare
favorably with many clubs,

even sometimes in top divisions

in other countries in Europe.

Three, two, one, fire.

But by the very early '80s,

Wrexham became
a very depressed town

with incredibly high levels
of unemployment.

People have asked me,
"What's Wrexham like?"

I've just said, "Don't go."

"It's a load of rubbish."

"You're wasting your time."

The football club

was impacted
by hard times as well.

In a small place,
the fortunes of the town

and its team
are inextricably intertwined.

The two absolutely
depend upon one another.

Wrexham is a town that battles

against odds constantly.

It really is a place
where people deserve

a little bit more than maybe
they've got out of life.

But the thing that we love
more than anything...

is the football club.

Holy sh*t, holy sh*t,
ujobok, gotta run

Make a hit, make a hit,
we ain't here for fun

Holy sh*t, holy sh*t,
jeto hit and run

Make a hit, make a hit,
like a machine g*n

Wrexham...
We're the fifth tier

of professional football.

We are the bottom level
of the professional game.

Professional football
is everybody,

whether you're
in the National League

or Premier League,
but there is a big difference

in terms of lifestyle, money.

The average salary

for a Premier League footballer

is about £3 1/2 million a year.

A player in the National League
will be making... a bit less.

Gotta run, make a hit

You tell people

you're a professional
footballer,

and instantly they think
flash car, nice house,

and it's not.
It's not like that.

Absolute f*cking disaster!

A lot of times,
you can actually hear

someone calling you sh*t or...

Yeah.

Ujobok, ujobok, ujobok

Even playing at this
level and getting paid for it,

it still is living the dream.

I know the dream is the top,
but this is still a dream.

Ujobok, holy sh*t

When you're in the non-league,

you've got to grind
for everything,

you got to work hard
for everything,

you got to pay for everything,

but I think as a football...
It's the same game.

You're still playing football.
You're still enjoying it.

Promotion's the goal.
We want to win the league.

We want to be the best team
in the league by a mile.

Getting back
into that fourth tier,

the League Two,
would be amazing for the club,

'cause if you get back
into the fourth tier,

you get a lot of funding
from the football league.

I'm really excited
the takeover's happening

because they can improve
the whole town as a collective

in terms of the infrastructure
of the town.

You know,
the stadium will likely improve.

This club's obviously
been down in this league

for a long time now,
and as captain,

I'd love to get to the end
of my career and look back

on being the one that led it
back into the football league.

Doo-do-doo.

All right, then, with all that
said, what we going for?

If we get an early goal,
2-nil, Wrexham.

- 2-nil?
- If we get an early goal.

Dave-o, what do you think?

I'll go 1-nil.

I just can't see us
keeping 'em out.

We just... we're not confident.
I think I'm gonna go 1-1.

I hope I'm wrong,

but we just don't
score enough goals, do we?

I'm a volunteer at the club.

I joined the trust board
nine years ago

as Director, Wrexham AFC,

and what I do
is I manage the budget.

I organize all board meetings,
all agendas.

I tend to be the person
who deals with media

and more or less
the face of the club

from a business side.

I've got a really big day job
for a multinational company,

which means I work long hours
anyway during the week.

And at weekends,

I've given everything to
the football club that I can.

I've prioritized it
over career advancement,

over family.

This season, it's been
very, very challenging,

given global pandemic.

We weren't allowed to have
supporters in the stadium,

which was the main source of
income for the football club.

Because of the pandemic,
no fans coming into the ground

to pay the one major
income stream...

There's no broadcast money
at this level.

It's what comes in
through the turnstiles

is the major revenue raiser,
and from March onwards,

nobody's been coming in
to football stadia

to support the teams.

So how are the clubs
like Wrexham gonna survive?

It's an extremely
uncertain future

that Wrexham was looking at.

Face the ball, face the ball!

So the takeover,
from Wrexham's perspective,

the timing was...
Could not have been better.

In my view, getting
out of the National League

is the hardest job
in world football.

Come on, then!

Yeah!

And I think
if the club wants to get out

of the National League,
it needs to change.

If Rob and Ryan can bring
that change, then fantastic.

Thank you very much.

The home
of Wrexham Football Club...

The Turf Hotel.

The club was founded
in this very building,

which sits directly outside

the main entrance
to the grounds.

The bar is always
five or six deep.

My parents were regulars here,

and I remember
coming to this pub

after the match and they've won.

And the jukebox is blaring,

and people are singing,
and people are happy.

And from that minute on,
I was absolutely hooked.

We had the badge
built into the wall.

That was just my way
of, you know,

keeping the pub
and the club connected.

In my 13 years of being here,
we've only ever closed one day.

We open 365 days a year.

We even open on Christmas Day
and Christmas night,

but like every other pub,

we've been closed
because of COVID.

You can't put into words
what it means to people.

You know, it's almost
like losing a limb,

because people say
it's only a game, but it's not.

It's more than that, you know?

This football club
means everything

to people in this town.

Anybody that you speak to
will tell you

it's been
a real difficult decade.

The past owners that we've had...

And are they here
for the wrong reasons?

So you still don't allow
yourself to believe

that this could happen.

But this set of supporters,
this town,

this community deserves a break.

Hello.

- Mustache is gone.
- Oh, yeah.

Yep.
I'm no longer on camera, so...

Well, here we are,

after what feels like
an age, right?

I have actual butterflies
right now.

As you know, the threshold
on the vote was high.

So you needed to get
a 75% or more

of those voting for...
For this to pass.

The turnout was massive, right?

91.5% of people
who could vote voted.

Wow.

On resolution one,
it was a 98.6% for.

- Wow.
- On resolution two,

it was a 98.4% for,
and on resolution three,

it was a 98.4% for, so...

An overwhelming
and resounding yes.

So congratulations
and really well done.

"Llongyfarchiadau,"
we say in Wales.

Thank you.

Really looking
forward to the journey.

When you wake up tomorrow,

the announcement
will be out there,

and let the fun commence.

It's not 100% in their control

that they're gonna
get this club promoted,

but if they do that,

it will be
one of the biggest days

in the history of the town.

The Red Army
had something to sing about

this afternoon.

A good moment
to congratulate Ryan Reynolds

and Rob McElhenney
for their recent purchase

of Wrexham Football Club.