Original subtitles

Thank you.

No worries.

Have a good day.

Every test that my wife and I did

and every question that we asked,

what Wrexham's like,

met the criteria of a--of a--

of a town with a working-class background

and, you know, wanting to improve--

wanting to improve itself.

And every--every-- every transaction I've had,

every discussion I've had has only--

has only strengthened that view.

So here we have-- this is the Racecourse Ground.

When we met, he was the club secretary

for Scarborough Football Club.

And, um, we met--I actually interviewed him for a mortgage.

And my boss declined his mortgage

because football was not a stable industry.

So obviously,

Shaun being Shaun, wouldn't accept that.

And, uh, he fought for his mortgage.

And, um, he took the girl out.

Always falls on his feet, this boy.

Always falls on his feet. Doing good things.

Shaun works and then works

and then works again, basically.

That is what he does.

He is probably the most hardworking person

I've ever met.

Look at this.

He's so knowledgeable.

He's always three steps ahead of everybody else.

Who was your best helper today, Chal?

Uh, Shaun.

He will answer emails

from getting up first thing in the morning,

and obviously, with the time difference

for Rob and Ryan, uh, quite often in the night.

You're setting this club up to give it

the absolute best chance of promotion.

Then at the end of the day as well,

when America's waking up, quite often we find that

we're doing calls and Zooms way into the evening as well.

Nic all right, kids all right?

Yeah. Oh, great, yeah.

I just don't see so much of 'em.

And this really start--

Started as a temporary gig for him.

Oh, he was supposed to do this for six weeks...

Yeah. Maybe at the most.

And then it was like, well, I'll do it for six months,

and then we'll see where we're at.

And now he realizes, it's a full-time,

- lifetime position, I hope. - Yeah.

No, I hope so too.

Effectively, what you're doing is,

you're just showing the complete flexibility

that we have to be able to accommodate

anything and everything.

I don't know where we would be without him.

I don't know where we'd be without him as well.

Shaun is, uh, one of one.

♪ Don't forget where you came from ♪

♪ Don't forget what you're made of ♪

♪ The ones who were there ♪

♪ When no one else would care ♪

♪ Don't be afraid to cry now ♪

♪ Even when the world comes crashing in ♪

♪ Don't forget to sing when you win ♪

♪ Don't forget to sing when you win ♪

So at the end of last season,

I think it was around June, uh,

Shaun let the club know

that he was planning to go on holiday

for the first time in a long time.

He and Nicola had identified

the week of October the 21st for that trip.

It was very important to Rob and Ryan and me

that we really kind of protect that week for Shaun and Nicola.

We're back here with Ryan Reynolds

and the other guy.

Come on.

Where? Wait, want me to go up here?

There you go. Yeah, that's good.

Everybody knows when it comes to Wrexham,

Rob and Ryan are very much joined at the hip,

bit of a double act.

And similarly, so are Shaun and I.

Shaun is doing many of the things

that I am not capable of doing.

Is that a fair assessment?

Fair? It's fair, but everything's teamwork,

as we know. Yes.

Um, you know, I'm not a huge fan

of the good cop/bad cop analogy

that sometimes gets thrown around.

I think it's closer to really Shaun is like

the Hand of the King from Game of Thrones.

You know, he's the...

The secret power behind the throne.

Yes, I know Varys was never technically

Hand of the Throne, all you Game of Thrones nerds,

but he does look like Shaun Harvey,

so just deal with it.

But, uh, with him going away,

you know, that means I have to be the Hand.

In what was quite

a Game of Thrones-y development,

the day Shaun left for his holiday,

Rob got in touch with me and announced he was arriving,

without having told Ryan or Shaun

for some strategic reason

or something I had yet to ascertain.

By the way, that is difficult.

You know when you've got a toddler, and--

and they're sort of desperate for an ice cream,

there's, like, a busy road in front of them.

Sometimes you've just gotta, like, steer them

towards the pedestrian crossing.

Rob revealed that he had come to the Racecourse

to help stage a-- a humorous prank

for the benefit of Ryan's birthday,

which was coming up in a few days' time,

uh, that involved a blimp

that was gonna fly over the Racecourse

with a very unflattering picture of Ryan on it.

And just as a reminder, last year...

Today we celebrate

Mr. Co-Chairman, Robert Lucinda McElhenney,

with this memorial urinal.

Ryan surprised Rob on his birthday,

commissioning a urinal with a fancy plaque

etched with Rob's face.

And yes, I recognize this is all fun stuff

that generates more exposure for the club,

but I think I don't like pranks.

That's always been a big thing for me.

I'm not a big--I'm not a big prank war person.

- Here's the blimp. - Here's the--

here--here is the blimp.

Cannot be denied, this is the blimp.

This is--yeah. Yes.

It's very convincing, isn't it?

Oh, that's so terrible.

Meanwhile, on my phone...

What would you do here?

I've got one co-owner sneaking

behind the back of the other one

and the other one asking about it.

Also, reminder, I am a working actor,

and while I have already been in an episode

of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia,

I've never actually been in a Deadpool movie, so...

So I did the only logical thing.

Yep, I am comfortable with the word "hero."

To celebrate my cochairman's birthday,

may I humbly present to you

the Ryan Rodney Reynolds memorial blimp.

A hideous but surprisingly inexpensive way

for the world to finally see Ryan Reynolds

as he's meant to be seen.

And so we christen this flying Ryan face

for the world to see.

So I don't--I don't think it's gonna break.

Ah, fuck it.

Um, now, all of these glorious ideas

had been, uh, formulated and plotted out

and planned and put into practice

without consulting me, without working out

whether or not we were allowed to do this,

what the local Welsh aviation laws,

uh, involved in regards to blimp flying.

And to make matters even more uncomfortable for me,

I'm having to run cover for Rob,

as our other cochairman is very curious

why Rob may or may not be in town.

I'll tell you what--do you know what I--I really think?

I'm looking forward to everyone getting off our grass.

I've always said-- listen, I'm all for--

I'm--I am down for fun. I'm a fun guy.

But I'm very protective of-- of the club.

So I took command of the situation,

and I immediately called Shaun.

Uh, and then over there is the blimp.

Do you see the-- they can't see you.

Only--only I can see you.

Don't you worry.

Um, and there's the blimp with Ryan's face on it.

We were in Tenerife,

having a holiday away the two of us.

Um, it's normal. Everything starts quite well,

um, until we had a little bit of a drama.

Fly high, my friend.

You're free now.

Happy birthday, Ryan!

You can usually tell how extensive the drama is

depending on how far around the pool he walks.

It was quite small, so he did a lot of laps of that pool.

Unfortunately,

my biggest fears were confirmed.

There were several Welsh aviation laws

we might have been breaking and the possibility

there could be fines and/or arrests.

And I've been lying to Ryan.

As a reminder, as far as their holiday goes,

this is day one.

Big challenge this weekend

versus Boreham Wood,

who fancy themselves as challengers for the league.

We need to get some momentum going today, don't we?

We certainly do, and again,

this is gonna be a really tough task here

for the--for Wrexham.

Hi. Hey.

We're at a stage

where we're still warming up,

so I think they're gonna give us a bit of a test.

Rob is in town, but actually the team isn't.

We're away at Boreham Wood.

Boreham Wood is a big game because they are one

of our potential rivals for the championship,

along with Notts County and Chesterfield.

So there's a lot of attention on this game.

It's certainly a test

that I think we need to approach

in a more positive, front foot manner

than we did in the previous away big games.

But here we go.

Wrexham knock it back to--

I wish we could get it up on the TV.

Which brings us to the thorny issue

of Article 48.

Article 48 is the law

that states that you can't broadcast

3:00 p.m. Saturday kickoffs in the UK.

This was to protect the live crowd scene,

the idea being, if it was on telly,

people maybe wouldn't bother to go

to the stadium to watch it.

Uh, h-hold on. I--I have to jump in here

real quick just to make things 100% clear

for any of the American fans out there.

That's right.

You can't watch the games on TV...

Anywhere...

But especially not in the UK,

even if it's a sellout.

That's right.

And for all the European fans watching out there...

I'm sure I sound

like a typical American asshole,

but don't you want to watch the games?

I mean, come on. You wanna watch the games.

Right?

We've done a deep dive into Article 48,

and there--there is a way

to protect the integrity of the sport

while also being able to watch the--

you know, sorry.

Sorry, sorry, sorry.

That's a whole other episode.

We were talking about Shaun. Let's get back to Shaun.

Every game the club plays is filmed,

um, but that feed of that game is made available

to the club for club usage,

and Rob and Ryan have access to that feed.

So that's how they would often watch games

when back in the United States.

Now, Rob got very excited at the prospect

of streaming this game in the Turf.

And Wrexham being a small town, word got around.

And before you knew it,

uh, everybody in the town knew.

All of a sudden, my-- my phone starts beeping

and then lighting up like a Christmas tree.

Ultimately, a case of, oh, no, what's happened now?

So what was your reaction

to the second time Shaun got called?

I don't think I knew

how much the work would take over, in all honesty.

I wonder when Mendy's coming back.

Well, actually, what Rob wanted to do was akin

to sticking two fingers up at the authorities

and something that I couldn't allow to happen.

Oh, oh. I gotta jump in again.

That's not what I was trying to do.

I--I don't even know what that means.

What does this mean?

Fuck off.

It's "fuck off"? Why?

See? I--I wasn't trying to create

an international broadcasting uproar.

I--I just wanted to watch the game.

I just--I didn't think it was a very big deal.

And then Shaun called me and said...

And I said, I don't know, I don't think it'll get out.

I don't--is it really that big of a deal?

And he said...

And so now I'm actually scared

because Shaun is scary.

I mean, look at him.

Okay, so we didn't get to watch the game

and instead listened to it on the radio,

which I have to admit is kind of fun,

'cause it makes it feel like it's 1947 or something,

but either way, I missed the lone goal

because I was in the bathroom.

Article 48 says that it's not gonna happen.

Anyway, yeah, cooler heads prevailed,

and Rob and the Turf ended up listening to the match,

which I was delighted about.

And that is the final whistle.

Wow. Wrexham, I think,

will have grounds to feel really disappointed

that they didn't get the 3 points.

Incidentally, we drew against Boreham Wood,

1-1, which means that we, uh, still haven't beaten

any of our closest competitors yet this season,

which is far from ideal.

We lost Chesterfield, lost Notts.

We--we drew today.

So to recap, Shaun has been gone for two days,

and so far there's been a healthy dose of lies

and subterfuge from at least one of our owners

and very nearly violations of both Welsh aviation law

and international blackout regulations.

And worst of all, two phone calls to Shaun

on his sacrosanct holiday.

And, uh, we haven't even gotten to the bad part yet.

The surprise on Ryan's birthday was a blimp,

which for UK viewers, is just a stupid fucking balloon.

You know, Rob thinks he's very funny,

and--and, you know, usually he is, by and large,

but I think, um, by this stage

of having two days of dealing with his shenanigans,

my sense of humor was at an all-time low.

Um, but on the plus side, you know,

Shaun's third day of his vacation was--

was pretty quiet.

And that is where things took a turn--again.

Should footballers be able to put political messages

on their boots?

Okay, so football club Wrexham,

owned by, uh, Ryan Reynolds and some other guy,

uh, banned striker Paul Mullin

from wearing boots emblazoned with a political message.

I think we've got the image. Mm.

Uh, he said, "Eff the Tories."

Paul, uh, unfortunately, you know, on his boots,

it had, uh, "Fuck the Tories."

And you can't say "Fuck the Tories,"

'cause the phrase "Fuck the Tories" is a very,

uh, explosive phrase, because--

Before we get into all that, I should probably just

give you a quick primer on British politics.

UK politics is dominated by two parties.

You have the Conservative Party,

who are on the right of the political spectrum,

and you have the Labour Party, who are on the left.

The UK government is the Conservative Party,

also known as the Tories.

Our local MP is a Tory,

but most of our fans are probably Labour voters.

So Paul Mullin, who's very much a Labour supporter,

decides to post a picture of his new boots to Instagram,

and, you know, a very innocuous

picture of his boots.

Uh, but if you were to swipe to the right...

Yes.

The picture was taken actually at the football club,

which could suggest that it was club-endorsed,

when of course, we had absolutely no idea.

Okay, so football club Wrexham, owned by...

So this time, I don't think

anybody had to call Shaun.

He called me.

I know from talking to Nicola that

she, you know, woke up and rolled over in bed

at about 6:00 in the morning in, you know,

the lovely Mediterranean, sunlight falling on her face,

to find an empty bed with Shaun out on the balcony

talking to people from, you know, the UK government,

Welsh government, the local council,

trying to put out fires left, right, and center.

I obviously posted the photo onto social media

and received a call from the club quite quick,

to be fair to them, just saying all, like,

the Wrexham, like, things in the background is, like--

I was like, oh, I didn't realize.

Obviously it's not representative of Wrexham.

It's totally me and my opinion.

So I removed the photo and just put another one up.

I woke up the next day, it blew up,

and next minute, I-- I couldn't put the telly on

without it being on every channel.

Is that not technically a uniform?

So the club gets to pick-- Yes, exactly.

Yeah, you just wear a uniform.

It was cute. He's adorable.

But he's behaving like a child, and you just can't.

It's born partly from his, uh, Liverpudlian roots.

It's a chant that's been sung

at a lot of Liverpool games.

I think it's a special thing to be from Liverpool,

and it means a lot to-- to the people of Liverpool

to be proud of it.

The best city in England.

Well, we don't want to be a part of England, but...

Paul is more than entitled

to his own political views.

What we can't allow to happen is for those political views

to be delivered using the club's platform.

So I was hoping I can just quell

this little fire that's burning.

All of a sudden, Ryan liked the picture.

I gave it a like on Instagram.

I didn't know that that would cause a ripple effect.

- Um... - It did.

Do you know what an Instagram carousel is?

Uh, it's all right if you don't.

But you would expect someone like Ryan Reynolds,

with his hundred million Instagram followers,

would know exactly what one was.

Now I need a fire engine

to put an inferno out.

So Shaun left on Friday.

It's now Monday, and he's threatening to come home.

So things were looking pretty bleak

for Shaun's vacation.

I've not really been killing it

in my time as the Hand.

But the most critical thing was making a statement.

"The photographs taken at the Racecourse Ground

"were done so without our knowledge or approval.

"The club also acknowledge

"that everyone is entitled to their own opinion,

whether that be employees or supporters."

So the statement went down okay-ish, I guess.

I mean, as well as statements like that can go down.

The Tories felt like we hadn't gone far enough.

Our left-leaning fan base decided

that we'd hung Paul out to dry.

So of course, it's at this point

that Shaun calls and says he's cutting his holiday short

and he's coming home the next day.

This was sort of our "all is lost" moment, really.

Rob and Ryan had, characteristically,

been causing chaos.

But worse, we had a political firestorm to deal with,

and you know, Shaun was having to cut short

his first holiday in God knows how long.

So that's when I decided to channel my inner Varys.

I knew if I was gonna prevail upon Shaun

not to return to Wrexham, there was no point

in contacting him directly--

or even to go to the "king."

You know, if you want something from the king,

you start with the queen.

But when approaching the queen,

you must approach indirectly

and delicately.

But it takes a deft hand to lead the queen to water.

I told him what a shame it would be if Shaun was

to spoil his holiday, and, you know,

he being ever the superhero,

got in touch with Rob,

who called Shaun and demanded he stay in Tenerife.

So the system works.

And now, to cap it all off,

at the game on Tuesday night, we're losing 1-0,

and it's raining.

But Rob is nothing if not confident,

and he made a prediction.

We all know that the club

getting promotion this season is the true focus.

Drop to the shoulder.

Trying to keep it away from Spence.

Paul stops the ball.

Gets his head up, gets the crossing.

Goal!

In football, wins are a wonderful thing

because they help to wipe the slate clean

the previous week, change the agenda,

change the topic of conversation.

Davies to Palmer.

Palmer holds the ball up well. Here's Davies.

Davies!

So after a week of trials and tribulations,

it was nice to get back to doing what we do best,

which is winning football matches.

Young. Good cross--Hayden!

So now Rob thinks he's prescient

or m-magic or something, I don't know, I mean,

I guess Game of Thrones had magic in it.

You know, he's--he's Bran, the little boy,

on the back of Hodor.

He--he can see into the future, apparently.

The other cochairman got to convince himself

that he'd saved Shaun's holiday,

so that was nice for him.

And you know, ultimately,

Shaun did have his holiday saved.

And so that was also a nice thing.

And was I responsible for those things?

I mean...

That's not for me to say.

That's for you to decide.

But I will say, I'm quite glad to go back

to just being Shaun's sidekick.

It's--it's a lot less stressful.

♪ I found out long ago ♪

♪ It's a long way down the holiday road ♪

♪ Holiday road ♪