Owning Wrexham AFC sometimes causes Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds’ stress levels to rise in a very specific way — especially when it comes to the last game of their football season.
“Thinking about and talking about Stockport being the last game of the season, I can feel two styes making their way up and into my eyelids,” McElhenney, 47, said during the Thursday, June 6, episode of Welcome to Wrexham. Reynolds, 47, hit back, saying he would “skip the stye” and offered another suggestion.
“Just go right for the good old-fashioned 1950s sort of stress, just straight to the chest,” he added while pounding on his torso. (McElhenney has revealed in previous episodes that he often gets styes in his eye when overly stressed.)
The Wrexham AFC co-owners weren’t major players in this week’s Welcome to Wrexham episode, leaving the drama to the players. One in particular, James McClean, was quite a “controversial” player for the team to sign — and the team executives explained why.
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“James McClean is an iconic figure,” Wrexham executive director Humphrey Ker said during Thursday’s episode. “When his name was first mentioned to me, my eyebrows shot up that a player like that would be interested in coming to us.”
McClean, 35, had a long-standing football career, even playing for teams in the Premier League, before joining Wrexham in August 2023. After receiving 10 yellow cards during the 2023-2024 season, McClean faced a two-game suspension. He also received a barrage of hate and “death threats” on social media after refusing to wear a poppy flower, a symbol of support for the British Army.
“I know what I would like to be remembered for, me football,” McClean said during his confessional. “But reality tells me that I’ll be viewed quite different.”
The athlete further explained that because he’s from Derry, Ireland, the poppy flower symbolizes when the “British occupation in Ireland came about” causing “hurt” and “pain” within the country.
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“From when I grew up, that’s how I view it,” he said. “So, that wasn’t going to change because I came to England to play football.”
Despite how the public feels, McClean noted that his time at Wrexham has been “unbelievable” thus far.
This week’s episode also offered a major update on the Wrexham women’s team, revealing that they’d be playing in America for the first-time ever.
“We’re able to make history by bringing the Wrexham women’s team to the U.S. this summer,” McElhenney said, joking, “Which is both exciting and economically responsible.”
New episodes of Welcome to Wrexham premiere Tuesdays on FX.
