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Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney pondered Arbroath swoop before buying Wrexham

The Red Lichties were discussed as a possible target for Reynolds and McElhenney.

Ryan Reynolds (left) and Rob McElhenney considered Arbroath move. Image: Shutterstock
Ryan Reynolds (left) and Rob McElhenney considered Arbroath move. Image: Shutterstock

Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney discussed buying Arbroath before taking over at Wrexham.

The Hollywood stars shook up the football world by buying the Welsh side in 2021, with the aim of transforming them into a Premier League outfit.

But according to the pair’s British business partner Humphrey Ker, Arbroath could have been the beneficiary of their Tinsel Town-tinged cash.

Speaking on BBC Scotland’s “Sacked in the Morning” podcast, Ker, who is executive director at Wrexham, explained how the Lichties came to be discussed – then dismissed.

He said: “So right at the jump, Rob [McElhenney] said, well, what about a club in Ireland? Because his family are from Ireland, or from Northern Ireland, or from Scotland.

Arbroath's Gayfield, seen from the air, could have been home to Hollywood duo Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElheney. Image: SNS
Arbroath’s Gayfield could have been home to Hollywood duo. Image: SNS

“And I’m afraid to say that I was a bit of a party pooper on that because my feeling was the ceiling in the English game is that much further away.

“My flatmate from university was a Red Lichties fan, so I have to go to Arbroath for my Scottish football club of choice.

“So ultimately, I said, if you went to Arbroath and we injected money and built that team and you got into the Premiership pretty quickly, you would then run up against Celtic and Rangers.”

That, said Ker, was the deciding factor in Reynolds and McElhenney opting to buy their way into the English leagues, albeit via a Welsh club.

Arbroath FC manager Dick Campbell at Gayfield.
Arbroath boss Dick Campbell. Image: SNS.

He added: “The speed at which you would get from Arbroath now to a sort of mid-table Scottish Premiership team would be quite quick.

“And then you would have this problem where you just get hammered all the time by the big boys there.

“It would just be tricky. And to take Ireland, for an example. If you go with Dundalk or someone like that, very quickly you would become the unassailable champions of the League of Ireland.

“And then what do you do? You go into the Champions League and get battered in the Champions League by a Greek team and then that’s sort of the cycle year on year.

“So, ultimately, we were like, we’ve got to do England or the English system.”

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