In the first season of Welcome to Wrexham, Ryan Reynolds comments that they were underdogs. But putting so much money into the team sounds like making them the opposite of that, rather, contenders. So were they underdogs or did they become not so at some point?
1 Answer
There are so many contexts which underdog can be used in relation to English football that it would be hard to know what Ryan was referring to without the quote and the date of the quote.
From the context of Welsh teams playing in the English football league Wrexham are perceived as underdogs (along with Newport) compared to the bigger teams of Cardiff and Swansea.
From the context of Wrexhams place in the football pyramid they had been in the National Conference i.e. non league since 2008. That is four divisions below the Premier League. It is easy to set a narrative of being an underdog when your team is there regardless of your strength compared to teams around you. A large number of people watching may only follow (or have only heard of) the Prem League so its easy to have a graphic going through the 92 teams until you get to the National Conference. ‘Here Be Underdogs’.
How Wrexham would have done without Ryan buying the club I don’t know, but they had been in that league for over a decade, except for the Prem League, that is usually not a good sign. You’re good enough to not get relegated, you’re not good enough to get promoted, fans are going to get bored of that pretty quickly. Stick some footage on of a quarter full ground on a wet winters evening and its very easy to say ‘hey we are underdogs’ (even though you might be 4-0 up against Barrow).
Netflix will want to sell the documentary as a rags to riches underdog story and while any of the above are still true they will be saying they are underdogs so realistically that could be for the duration.
