Cod Almighty | Diary
The football is officially going on forever!
13 April 2023
Let’s talk about Wrexham. Following their dramatic 3-2 win over Notts County on Monday, it looks very likely that they’ll be joining us in the fourth division next season.
It’s not in your West Yorkshire Diary’s nature to wish misery upon anyone else, but it feels like some value of our 5-4 win at the Racecourse Ground last May will be shaved away if Wrexham go and achieve promotion this season anyway. That victory of ours gains value the longer the Red Dragons stay down there so, purely selfishly, I was hoping Notts County would win.
Wrexham have a new-found wealth that other teams in that division simply can’t compete with. They should have walked the league last season, but they didn’t account for Town. They should have walked the league this season, but they didn’t account for County, or that Macauley Langstaff would outscore Paul Mullin for a fraction of the cost.
Money buys you most things, but with all the American fanfare and Hollywood spending prowess they now have, they will never be able to control what other teams do, and that should make millionaire owners think a little more before they spend.
I don’t think I’m mean in wanting the underdog to prosper, though. Ryan Reynolds made the mistake of describing Wrexham as an “underdog story” in the opening sequence to his and Rob McElhenney’s documentary series, Welcome to Wrexham. In running the club the way they do, and for being who they are, they automatically make everyone they play the underdog.
It bothers me that they spend so much. It bothers me that they are paying Shaun Harvey a handsome wage for advice that is very likely causing them to haemorrhage money in such a way that it forces others in the league to spend beyond their means just to compete. But since that amount of cash doesn’t even wipe your arse in Hollywood, no one at Wrexham seems too concerned about the damage they are causing to the game at that level.
All things being equal, I’d have maybe wanted Wrexham to win the league. But things aren’t equal, and that’s the problem. As long as there’s an imbalance of wealth and power, it’s difficult to like anyone that wields it.
Well, that’s been brewing in me for a while — since Monday, in fact.
Grimsby Town news is thin on the ground, as it usually is on a Thursday morning, so, to fill the massive void, why not let this incredibly uninspiring fact sink in: the Mariners have finished in every possible position in the bottom half of the fourth division except 19th, 20th and 21st since 2006.
If we could sneak a top half finish, which is just goal difference away as things stand today, it’d represent out best league performance in 17 years. That’s why this Saturday’s match at home to play-off-chasing Mansfield matters.
In 2006, Carlisle, Northampton and Leyton Orient all won automatic promotion from the fourth division. The exact same trio could very possibly repeat that feat this season. Seventeen years and we’ve come full circle. We’re all on football’s hamster wheel, jostling for position with no finish line. It will never be decided who has won the football — but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Because it isn’t about the winning. It isn’t even about the taking part — it’s about being part of shared experiences that transcend generations. It’s about plotting memories on your own timeline, being in the moment, feeling part of the story, part of the furniture, come rain or shine, home or away, win or lose.
Many of Wrexham’s new-found fans probably won’t understand that, which is why they’ll likely drop away as soon as Hollywood loses interest in them.