Wrexham AFC are one of the most historic clubs in football in the UK. They have an incredible history that has helped to bring the club new investment. So exactly how old are this club?
Is Wrexham the third oldest football club in the world? Wrexham is the third oldest football club in the world. They were founded in October 1864, making them the eighth oldest club in the world and the third oldest professional club.
Wrexham has an incredible history in football. They were founded all the way back in October 1864. It was originally thought that the club was founded in 1873. In 2012, old newspaper articles were found that reference the founding of the club being in 1864. They were originally formed by Wrexham Cricket Club which wanted something to do in the winter.
Being founded this long ago means they are certainly one of the oldest football clubs in the world. It is currently believed that they are the eighth oldest football team in the world. However, not all of the teams that are older than them are professional. There are only two professional teams older than Wrexham AFC.
Notts County is the oldest professional football team, having been founded in 1862, even before the Football Association was created. Stoke City are the other professional team older than Wrexham AFC. They were founded in 1863, the year before Wrexham were founded.
There is no other professional team that is older than Wrexham. This makes the team the third oldest professional team in the world. They are professional because they pay their players a full-time wage which means they are a professional team.
How much did Ryan Reynolds pay for Wrexham?
Ryan Reynolds was one of the men who bought Wrexham in 2020. He has been part of the team revolutionising Wrexham and taking the team closer to being back into the EFL.
It is rumoured that Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney paid £2 million for Wrexham. This is the flat fee that the pair paid when they bought the club in 2020, but it is likely that they have both invested much more into the club.
Wrexham have a much bigger budget than most of the other clubs in a similar position. The pair of new owners have also likely invested a huge amount into the team that has helped Wrexham to purchase the Racecourse Stadium. Reynolds has invested a huge amount in the club to modernise it and prepare the team for playing in the EFL.
So we don’t actually know how much Reynolds and McElhenney have invested into the team because they have done a huge amount of work behind the scenes. The £2 million figure is based on what Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney paid to the old owners for control of the club.
They have likely invested quite a bit more than this into the club to make it more modern.
Could Wrexham play in the Premier League?
When Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenny took over Wrexham AFC they had some big ideas with the club.
One day, Wrexham could play in the Premier League but there are a lot of things that need to improve before that. While Reynolds and McElhenny have brought a huge amount of new investment to the club, it is still not enough to reach the Premier League. Premier League teams almost always have billionaire owners.
Wrexham would need to secure larger investments if they wanted to reach the Premier League. It is likely that it would be easier for Wrexham to secure further investment to help them reach the Premier League thanks to their famous owners.
Not only do the team need a lot more investment but they also need to actually get to the Premier League first. Wrexham are currently playing in the fifth tier of English football. This means that they need to get promoted four times before they reach the Premier League. It is a huge ask for Wrexham to get promoted four times as the competition only gets harder the further up the table you go.
So realistically, Wrexham could one day play in the Premier League. But that is very far away at the moment and the team needs a lot of work before they will be able to reach this massive moment. It does look like the owners are in it for the long run and Wrexham have certainly improved since being taken over in 2020.
Is Wrexham getting better?
Wrexham have been one of the major storylines in football over the last few years due to being taken over by two Hollywood celebrities. Yet a lot of people are wondering whether this has actually led to improvement on the pitch.
Wrexham are definitely getting better at the moment. When the team were taken over in 2020, they had finished the 2019-20 season in 19th in a season cut short due to Covid-19. They began to improve immediately under new management.
In 2020-21, the team’s first season with Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney as owners, the team improved to eighth, missing out on the National League play-off quarter-finals by just a single point, despite having a better goal difference than two of the teams above them.
Last season the team improved once again, this time finishing the season in second. They finished six points behind Stockport County who were promoted to League Two. They instead reached the National League playoff semi-final, where they lost 5-4 to Grimsby Town who were the promoted team.
At the time of writing the team are top of the National League and look likely to be promoted to League Two at the end of the season. They are currently in a very close fight with Notts County for the automatic promotion spot. Wrexham don’t really want to finish second considering how the playoffs ended last year.
Wrexham are certainly getting better since being taken over. They have been able to invest massively in the team and Wrexham have certainly gotten better since Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney took over the club.