Wrexham AFC’s Humphrey Ker has revealed that a point-scoring system determined which UK football team Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney would purchase — and another English team came so close to the top spot.
In a recent interview, Wrexham’s executive director, Ker, said that the Welsh club was ultimately selected for purchase as it met a variety of specific criteria.
“Lots of people have been very complimentary about us picking Wrexham,” Ker told The Athletic.
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“In hindsight, it makes sense. And Wrexham was genuinely an early front-runner. But we did sit down and look at a host of clubs, assessing whether they were a good fit for what we hoped to do,” he added.
Ker admitted that before pinning their dreams on the team, there were conversations around the potential purchasing of Bolton Wanderers.
“They were available for what was a massively reduced price for a club of that size, history and infrastructure. But we felt it was just too big a fish, in a way.”
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He said that after rejecting Bolton, a selection process was brought in which saw each club being ranked via a points system.
Points were awarded based on criteria relating to: fanbase, geography, the narrative socio-economic status and facilities.
Ker revealed that Wrexham initially didn’t score very high when it came to the latter.
The low facilities rating was due to the club not owning their home, the Racecourse Ground, and the fact they didn’t have a designated training ground for the players.
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However, fanbase, geography and catchment area rankings sent the former National League club skyrocketing to the top of the points system with a 38 out of 50 mark.
Interestingly though, Ker also revealed that Hartlepool United was once a contender for the Hollywood takeover as it actually finished on 36 points, just two below Wrexham.
However, the League Two team was ultimately let down due to its proximity to Championship and Premier League giants.
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Ker said: “[Hartlepool] didn’t score very well on geography because they were so close to Middlesborough, so close to Sunderland and so close to Newcastle, competing with a lot of big, big clubs,” Ker revealed.
While it came close in the point-scoring system, the Hartlepool heist wasn’t written in stars as “Wrexham had been a frontrunner from very early on.”
Instead, interest in the north-east outfit was put on hold and was claimed to be a “second front if [Wrexham] had all gone wrong.”
If you can believe it, this story goes from bad to worse for Hartlepool fans.
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It was confirmed last month that Reynolds and McElhenney’s team would be replacing Hartlepool in the English Football League next season.
The former have been confirmed to be playing in the National League next season, while Wrexham will re-join League Two after a 15-year absence.
Looks like that points system worked in the co-owner’s favour, right?
Featured Image Credit: Alamy/Instagram (vancityreynolds)Topics: Wrexham, Ryan Reynolds, Rob McElhenney, League Two, Football