Welcome to Wrexham season 1, episode 2 recap: Reality

In episode two of FX’s Welcome to Wrexham, the Wrexham Football Club and its new owners attempt to quickly learn the ropes of the business. Meanwhile, the team endeavors to qualify for the playoffs and eventually get promoted.

Very quickly though reality sets in and the new owners discover why the club they bought has been in the bottom of the pro leagues for 13 seasons running.

Welcome to Wrexham season 1, episode 2 recap: Welsh interpretations

At 204 Studios in Los Angeles, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney finally meet in person after having only conversed on Zoom. They film a promo for their Wrexham buy, toned like a comedy skit, as a Welsh interpreter translates their words intentionally wrong.

After the opening billboard, a short commercial plays. It’s a promo by Ryan and Rob for Ifor Williams Trailers, a sponsor for the football club.

Spencer Harris, former director for the club, speaks to the staff at the stadium and assures them that there will as yet, be no changes to anyone’s employment status. Humphrey Ker introduces himself formally to the coaching and support staff with a title of executive director.

He will be representing Rob and Ryan’s interests in meetings and decisions. Though Rob confesses that he trusts Humphrey, they all know he isn’t capable of running a football club.

So, they hire Shaun Harvey, a 26-year veteran of the football industry with a history in the Premier League and CEO of the English Football League as an advisor to the board. He’s committed to guide the club until they find a suitable CEO.

Humphrey Ker introduces himself to the Wrexham players, nervously professing that it flashes him back to his dork years, like being in front of all the coolest bad boys in school.

Welcome to Wrexham season 1, episode 2 recap: A sleeping giant

33-year-old midfielder Paul Rutherford takes us through how they built many of the modifications to his current house as DIY projects. He and his wife, already with two boys, have another child on the way.

He’s been a pro footballer for quite some time and has been playing since he was five. He’s hopeful about the Hollywood takeover of the club.

We’re introduced to the young, upcoming Jordan Davies, another midfielder. His mother takes us through Jordan’s history in the sport, as a homegrown Wrexham player.

She pulls out photos and news clippings of his accomplishments. “It’s my club, it’s my town…It’s a sleeping giant,” exclaims Jordan as graphics illustrate that he lives just the next village over, a few miles away from the stadium.

We ride in the car with Dean Keates, club manager, talking about how he and most of the players are up for end of contract by the end of the season. He might not get renewed, and he expects it.

It’s just a certainty of life as a team manager. Doubt and discontent are rife among the fans and supporters as they declare, in on-cam confessionals, that plenty of people, including management, must be fired so that the club can improve.

Wrexham wins a small victory versus Wealdstone FC at two points to one.

Welcome to Wrexham season 1, episode 2 recap: Played by the occasion

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Humphrey tells Rob about the mood among the players. The reality of having one-year contracts and the season coming to an end soon is weighing on them.

Having spent 13 seasons at the bottom level of the pro football league and the pressure to qualify for the playoffs for the team’s players and coaching staff also weighs heavily on them. To take the pressure off, team manager Kates advises the players to “Play the game, not the occasion.”

Back at Wrexham, the Turf Hotel’s pub opens as the end of season away game begins. Fans flock into the pub to watch their team versus Dagenham & Redbridge FC, hopeful that they can be in the playoffs.

But only if they win this one. At past 4AM, Rob watches the same game from his home in LA with his 10-year-old son Axel.

At halftime, the veteran Paul Rutherford enters the game. Dag and Red score a goal.

The score is Dagenham & Redbridge – 1 vs Wrexham – 0. It’s five minutes into the second half.

Rutherford trips an opposing player, is punished with a red card, and gets ejected from the game. In the locker room he seethes and rages.

Wrexham finally score a goal and the fans are elated. But despite their best efforts, time runs out and the game ends in a tie.

A tie is not good enough to qualify. They have been knocked off the playoffs by a point.

“Wrexham’s promotion dream is in tatters,” somberly declares the game commentator. In the locker room, Rutherford weeps.

After the game, manager Dean Keates and his coaching staff are released. Paul Rutherford is released.

10 other players are also released. Facing a 14th season at the bottom of the pro leagues, the future looks bleak for Wrexham AFC.

Rob and Ryan face the prospect of rebuilding their player roster and coaching staff with a demoralized team.

Welcome to Wrexham season 1, episode 2 recap: Review

It was almost inevitable that the team would lose even with Rob and Ryan taking over. They’ve only made one change and that’s to get a new advisor in industry veteran, Shaun Harvey.

Even he was bullish about the team’s prospect with the current coaching staff and players. That kind of change takes time to bed down and sink in.

Still, the new management had to give everyone a chance to win before they got fired. I love how this episode presents the obstacles in the way of the underdog team.

The pacing of the docu is intuitive and well-planned, just like the introduction of new characters. Even the tragicomic tone that it’s presented with is classic, almost Shakespearian.

If you can’t get away from the Ted Lasso references, you can bet your teeth that that show was only cosplaying the very real emotions of the people on Welcome to Wrexham. The miserable fans as their faces sink with another loss.

The headshaking anger of veteran midfielder Rutherford, the player who got ejected on a red card, then getting fired the next day. These are genuinely compelling nonfiction arcs that have real world consequences.

It’s all made possible by top notch editing. Rutherford is now unemployed, bringing to fore the cost of losing especially since, earlier in the episode, we’d already been to his house.

We spent time with his two kids. We know full well he has a third child on the way.

I bet that season-defining mistake will haunt him for the rest of his life. What’s not directly said in the past two episodes is how football has always followed the fate of the town’s industry.

Why the Wrexham team is the way it is has plenty to do with the state of Wrexham the town. As commercial cities like London, Manchester, Cardiff, Swansea have flourished, the teams there have followed suit too because there was a large enough market and capital available to support them.

Wrexham being a mostly industrial town has a healthy retail sector, manufacturing, bio-technology, finance and professional services. But it still isn’t on the kind of financial support caliber that other cities are on the Premier League simply because it’s such a modest city.

That’s how much of an underdog Wrexham AFC are as a team. Rob and Ryan know that now as a sobering reality.

It all sets up things quite nicely for the next few episodes on a cliffhanger note. You can check out the teaser for episode 3 above this sub head.

What are your thoughts on episode two of the docu series?

New episodes will premiere on both FX and Hulu every Wednesdays at 6:01 ET.