Tinseltown: Hollywood and the Beautiful Game - a Match Made in Wrexham

by Ian Herbert

*** LONGLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 ***

*** ONE OF THE DAILY TELEGRAPH'S SPORTS BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2023 ***

*** ONE OF THE TIMES' SPORTS BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2023 ***

The remarkable inside story of how two Hollywood A-listers, Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds, stunned the football world by buying a non-league club in North Wales.

'astute, lovingly detailed ... so entertaining ... so charming' Victoria Segal, the Sunday Times

'A superb account of a modern-day success story, told beautifully by one of the best writers in the business. This is one of the great football stories of recent years. No matter who you support, if you love football, you will love the story of Tinseltown.' Daniel Taylor, The Athletic

'This is a compelling, multi-layered, page turner, underpinned by a real sense of both place and connection with the eclectic characters involved. It will appeal to anyone with even the slightest interest in the game's enduring place in a changing world.' Louise Taylor, Guardian

'...the best sports book I've read all year for many years...It's full on factual but funny, exhaustive but not exhausting and well written and wonderful.' Paul Ross, talkSPORT

'terrific ... A richly layered and fascinating story of a club and community reborn' FourFourTwo

'This book comes from the heart. It tells the story of how Wrexham, the club I love, has always been special and achieved so much in the past, as well as the present. I really enjoyed it.' Mickey Thomas, Wrexham FC legend and 1992 FA Cup hero

It was one of the most extraordinary takeovers British football has known. In February 2021, Ryan Reynolds joined with Rob McElhenney to buy Wrexham FC, a non-league team in North Wales.

Wrexham, a former coal and steel town dealing with its post-industrial legacy, suddenly found itself at the centre of global attention, with broadcast networks around the world descending to discover what was going on. The club became the subject of a smash hit Disney+ docu-series, Welcome to Wrexham.

Tinseltown tells the story of this extraordinary, unpredictable and often surreal football takeover and the remarkable events that followed. Written with the full cooperation of Wrexham FC, it is the inside story of what happened when Hollywood met a dot on a map. How a town was transformed when its football club, aspiring only to survive on the fifth rung of the British football ladder, was sprinkled with gold dust and found ambition again.

With unique access to key figures, the book charts the club's attempts to climb up the pyramid, providing a vivid sense of what it is like to play for this 'Hollywood' team and the pressure and spotlight that comes with it.

At their only press conference since buying the club, nobody laughed when Reynolds and McElhenney said the Premier League could be an aspiration. 'Couldn't we theoretically make this happen?' McElhenney asked. 'Why not dream big?' added Reynolds.

Genres: Sports, Football, Nonfiction

400 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 31, 2023

Reviews

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having recently marathon-watched both seasons of Welcome to Wrexham, this was the obvious follow-up. Taking the reader behind the scenes of the "behind the scenes" documentary series, this was a great read I'd easily recommend to anyone who's enjoyed following the trials and tribulations of Wrexham FC.

[Blake · Rating 4 out of 5]

You’ve probably seen or heard that Ryan Reynolds’ and Rob McElhenney’s ownership of Wrexham has propelled the club to trophy glory, commercial success, and into American popular consciousness. Welcome to Wrexham, the fly-on-the-wall documentary series and cultural phenomenon that charts Wrexham’s startling rise from National League to Championship over four entertaining seasons, addresses the cynicism of modern-day club ownership by thumbing its nose at PR-massage jobs like All or Nothing.

And if you haven’t seen or heard about it—perhaps that rock that you’ve been living under needs some lifting. For Welcome to Wrexham is stirring viewing, and deserves your attention.

Tinseltown: Hollywood and the Beautiful Game by Ian Herbert is a well-researched and straight-man foil companion piece to Welcome to Wrexham. There is little of the charming snark and wit of the documentary series in Tinseltown, but through Herbert (a Wrexham fan and respected Daily Mail journalist), we can learn more about the club and the city’s history to fully flesh out the angles of anxiety, faded glory, missed chances, and tragedy that haven’t been given the Disney treatment in Welcome to Wrexham.

“Covid’s arrival might have saved Wrexham from relegation but its refusal to go away took what little hope there was left. The turnstile money disappeared, along with the perimeter-board advertisers and the broadcast revenue from occasional live matches on BT Sport. The water and electricity were switched off, the groundsman was paid a retainer to keep out intruders but the turf was no longer cultivated and weeds took over the ground.” (pg. 21)

Herbert writes affectionately about his beloved Wrexham whilst acknowledging the city’s working-class history that is greatly coloured by tragedy. This is a city very obviously under the cosh and living off the fumes of past footballing and industrial glories. Tinseltown’s stories of drug use, juvenile delinquency, and matchday hooliganism underlie the homely football chats over coffee, slow motion redemption shots, and charming stoicism that Welcome to Wrexham routinely serves up.

Tinseltown covers Wrexham’s 2021-23 seasons (which correspond with Season 1 and 2 of Welcome to Wrexham). Familiarity with the documentary series quickly helps us to recognise the knockabout characters around the city (Wayne Jones and Wayne Clarke), the pragmatic heads in the clubrooms (Shaun Harvey, Kevin Mulholland), and the breakout stars (Lili Jones and Rosie Hughes) that are further described in Tinseltown. Herbert also introduces others who don’t appear in the series (for example, club advisor Les Reed, and the shoe repair expert) yet still contribute to the fabric of community and success at the club and around the city.

History features prominently in Tinseltown. Herbert expertly recounts how the Gresford Colliery coal mine disaster of 1934 inflicted multi-generational and shared civic trauma on the city of Wrexham, and how this trauma has infused with the club’s brief snatches of success and its more recent freefall into the depths of the National League. The trauma is palpable as we read that Wrexham’s ignominious survival from relegation from the National League was guaranteed by 0.08 points—a computational reprieve derived from calculating their points-per-game number after Covid lockdown brought an early end to the 2019-20 season. At the lowest ebb of the club’s 156-year history, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney come in and, well, you probably know the rest of the story (or fairytale).

As an invaluable resource the Wrexham story, Tinseltown shines when providing depth and granular detail to what is only hinted at, or glossed over, in Welcome to Wrexham. Such depth includes:a McElhenney thought bubble is followed up by Humphrey Ker as he scours Transfermarkt and FM for a suitable club for McElhenney to invest in (Wrexham? Macclesfield? Hartlepool?); rumours of a Russell Crowe takeover abound; Les Reed’s incisive spotting of playing talent; the sliding doors moment of Stockport signing Paddy Madden instead of Paul Mullin; and the club being happy to eat fines earned from using the wrong kind of signage for a televised FA Cup game. The nature of these details is darkly humourous considering how the club was run on the thinnest of shoestrings not so long ago—a humour that its owners, as they shoot self-deprecating commercials in the Wrexham dressing room, would readily recognise.

“At a stroke, a decades-old narrative at Wrexham was being rewritten. This was a club which had generally prevailed through managers squeezing value and building quality out of players who cost relatively little, though progress this time (if and when it came) would be inorganic. They were spending for success.” (pg. 133)

Herbert casts his journalistic eye far and wide across Wrexham in weaving Tinseltown’s narrative. He occasionally breaks away to give short, italicised vignettes of various characters around Wrexham. These asides do not always emotionally land, and can feel intrusive and jarring. The methodical pacing of relating Wrexham history and Reynolds’ and McElhenney’s genuineness in conducting due diligence on their ambitious new venture, is blunted by pages of quickfire form and result dispatches from the games in the final run in to the 2021-22 season. These dispatches attempt to set up a thrilling denouement, yet since we already know the ultimate result of it all—having already white-knuckled it through the slick production values in Welcome to Wrexham’s final episodes of Season 2—doesn’t impact as much as Herbert intends.

The quickened pace in the final third of Tinseltown also throws up some avoidable errors, with the most glaring being whirlwind striker for the women’s team and legitimate star of the series, Rosie Hughes, being called ‘Rosie Jones’ across several pages, including a reference to Paul Mullin being “the male Rosie Jones”. These editorial lapses chip away slightly at the credibility that Herbert has worked hard to establish.

One of the most fascinating insights that Tinseltown offers (and is hinted at by the connotation of glittering superficiality of the word itself) come with Herbert’s brief observations of Wrexham becoming a commercial vehicle for advertisers and content creators. Welcome to Wrexham shows replacement goalkeeper Ben Foster coming out of retirement to continue his vlogging of goalmouth scrambles, and using the content for his online channel and podcast. Herbert even writes of how attempts to bring in Hal Robson-Kanu and Gareth Bale to wreak havoc on hapless lower league defences fell through. “Fans didn’t want the club to become a content factory” Herbert writes, “a place where old pros went for a last pay cheque.” As objective viewers of Wrexham’s bankrolled success, we cannot help but feel cynical in an age of contemporary football that gives us more than enough reason to be so. Herbert continues: “…amid the team’s inconsistency, the documentary team began seeing the potential of an episode built around that. It would be called ‘Sack the gaffer’. Again, sensitivities were not spared in the quest for creative output.”

Reading Tinseltown is important because it contextualises and voices our cynicism to Wrexham’s newfound success. What can we make of Reynolds’ and McElhenney’s ownership and social philanthropy in an age when ruthless asset-stripping owners and oligarchs who mobilise the wealth of nation-states to launder reputations, continue to run roughshod over proud club histories? “Why had this story of Rob, Ryan and Wrexham captured the zeitgeist in such an extraordinary way?” Herbert asks. He parses the elements of the Wrexham rags-to-riches story and excels in cutting through the cynicism to give us some answers. These answers help us to cheer Wrexham and Reynolds-McElhenney on, even if only begrudgingly, as the freewheeling counterpoints to the scores of irresponsible owners who have, and continue to, grind proud clubs into dust.

Following Tinseltown’s publication, Welcome to Wrexham has stretched to four seasons, and a fifth (filming Wrexham’s Championship tilt in 2025-26) is forthcoming. Over seasons three and four, we watch as footballing journeymen Steven Fletcher and Jay Rodriguez join Wrexham. These expensive signings are the predictable, banal trappings of bankrolled success; the kind of well-worn names that are somewhat antithetical to the community-focused mandate that Reynolds and McElhenney espouse. Where there’s money to spend, there will be a late-30s, in-from-the-cold big earner to vindicate the realists who know that the price of the relentless push for success in the short-term is long-term unsustainability. When will the fatigue hit? Or even the content fatigue? In Herbert’s Daily Mail article from 4th March, 2025, he writes:

“…it sounds perverse to hope that the club actually don’t win a third successive promotion and make the unprecedented leap from National League to Championship inside three years this spring. I don’t think I’m the only one feeling a sense of unease about that, though. In the cold light of day, I don’t want it to happen… It’s hard to dispel a sneaking suspicion that the breakneck pursuit of Championship football is, to some extent, driven by [Reynolds’s and McElhenney’s] ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ documentary. While the Championship secures more documentary seasons, it’s hard to see a year’s consolidation in League One providing quite the same streaming gold… Wrexham don’t have a training ground. They still only have a temporary stand in place of the old Kop, so the Racecourse will be three-sided when work on a permanent Kop starts… The football journey may have been incredible, but at ground level, little has changed in the five years since McElhenney and Reynolds bought Wrexham.”

Whether Herbert likes it or not, Wrexham currently sit in a respectable 15th place in the 2025-26 Championship season. Tinseltown, in covering up to Wrexham’s promotion to League Two, only tells half of the Wrexham story under Reynolds and McElhenney. And considering Herbert’s recent scepticism, perhaps he has only told half of his story. On the strength and depth of his writing in Tinseltown, a follow-up would undoubtedly be warmly welcomed and similarly fascinating to read.

“We want to become part of your story. We don’t want you to be our story.” (pg. 378)

STARS: 4/5

UNDER 20: A gripping exploration of the Welcome to Wrexham phenomenon that provides a counterpoint to the soullessness of modern club ownership.

FULL-TIME SCORE: Home-grown Herbert, the defensive cover, works tirelessly to ensure that the depth of glittering new talent further up the pitch put in a shift to win the game 3-0.

RELATED READING: My Wrexham Story: The Inspirational Autobiography from the Beloved Football Hero by Paul Mullin (2023); From Hollywood to Wrexham by Peter Read (2023)

Read this review and more book reviews on my blog, Dispatches From Row-Z ----> fromrowz.com

[Geoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a big fan of Wrexham AFC. Now, anyway. Like many others I jumped on board when Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds purchased the team back in 2020. I honestly didn't know who Rob was at the time as I was more a fan of Ryan Reynolds particularly having been impressed with a lot of his philanthropy work. A fan of football (Manchester United being my team) I felt I could support Ryan Reynolds as there was room for a second team in my world. I have not looked back.

Wrexham wise I so far have listened to Paul Mullin's book, which was great. This one gives so much information about Wrexham and the impact Rob and Ryan have had on the town itself as it not only recounts how everything started, played out and culminated with the promotion to League 2, but gives some history on the town as well as insight to other aspects of Wrexham you don't get from the documentary. Overall, this book provided the information I was looking for about Wrexham the Town, the Club and how it all came to be, culminating up to the promotion to League 2.

Where I picked this up as an Audible I can say the Performance was 4 stars, the story was definitely engaging (it was what I wanted to hear) and overall I would give it just over 4 stars. I definitely recommend it if you are a fan of this Wrexham journey or even if you want a feel good story about how two individuals can use their wealth for good.

[Karen Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

Companion piece to the wildly successful WELCOME TO WREXHAM documentary series. Which is to say that there's not much new information nor many fresh insights into the rags-to-riches story of the club.

Nonetheless, it's an enjoyable, heartwarming read. And with Wrexham currently second in League Two, there are further chapters - as yet unwritten - to come.

And eventually, someone is going to make a movie of the entire narrative. I wonder who'll play Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney . . . two boys who have most definitely done good, in the purest sense of the words.

7/10 - three stars is a little ungenerous

[Ray Smillie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having watched and read about the rise of Wrexham from sort of afar (I don't do pay tv), I found myself fascinated about how an American and a Canadian quickly grew to love both the football team and the town (although it is technically a city, now like Dunfermline where I come from, but I still call it a town).

This is a heartwarming tale of a club who had been down in the doldrums for far too long. It ends with them getting back up to senior leagues and it really isn't a spoiler alert for any football fan that they went up another level this year.

[Jonny Brick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spinning several plates at once - social history, celebrity, football business, reportage, memoir - hugely successfully. The right man to tell the story, although he is far too good for the newspaper which employs him.

[Gareth Davies · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book all Wrexham fans will love. An excellent insider review of the final two seasons in the National League. The book is at its best when giving a behind the scenes lens of that happened. Some of the additional “character” chapters are more miss than hit.

[Gary K · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read a lot of football books and this is up there with the best of them.

[Ian Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fantastic. Being Welsh (south), I've always looked out for their results. I'm now going to buy myself a new home shirt.