When Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney bought Wrexham it raised more than a few eyebrows, however, they could have been getting welcomed into the Rangers director’s box.
The Hollywood duo have more than put their money with their mouths are and have been regulars in North Wales since dipping their toes into the sport.
Now, according to the man who helped broker the deal, Humphrey Ker, we could have been watching “Welcome to Arbroath” and not Wrexham, as told to the BBC’s podcast Sacked in the Morning, a deal that might have seen Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney coming to Rangers.
Reynolds and McElhenney given SPFL nod before Wrexham move
Reynolds and McElhenney have progressively sought to develop Wrexham to make their project a sustainable one and not something akin to what happened to Gretna in the early 2000s.
When asked how the deal came about, Ker told Craig Levein and host Amy Irons:
“So right at the jump, Rob said, well, what about a club in Ireland? Because his family are from Ireland, or from Northern Ireland, or from Scotland.
“And I’m afraid to say that I was a bit of a party pooper on that because my feeling was the ceiling in the English game is that much further away.
“My flatmate from university was a Red Lichties fan, so I have to go to Arbroath for my Scottish football club of choice.
“So ultimately, I said, if you went to Arbroath and we injected money and built that team and you got into the Premiership pretty quickly, you would then run up against Celtic and Rangers.”
It’s a shame that the movie stars were talked out of the possibility of investing in Scotland.
Reynolds, in particular, is worth a bob or two with companies he owns or has sold worth a staggering £14bn according to Forbes.
A two-horse race might be fun if you are one of the two horses but a third makes things a lot more interesting.
Arbroath might not have had the fan base to be a long-term sustainable option but, with the right backers, one of the Edinburgh based clubs might have been able to close the gap as Hearts have done in the past.
Scottish football is unique.
Full of characters and football that can only be described as a throwback, it might not be pretty, but it’s ours.
Reynolds and McElhenney could have brought a star quality that maybe even Neil Doncaster could have marketed.
Imagine how Arbroath fans must feel hearing this though…
