Wrexham is the Game 4: Love & unicorns
We're as loyal as Arthur Massey and we look as lovingly at James Jones as little Jude
ANDY: Bill Shankly once said “football is not a matter of life and death, it's more important than that”. He was wrong and 43 years later, Phil Parkinson proved it.
Subbing off James Jones to be with his family despite being in the middle of a key game. That’s the measure of Parky.
It's those little bits, the overheard conversations here and there, that Welcome to Wrexham does really well. And just when you thought you couldn't love James Jones any more, the fifth episode grabs you by the heartstrings.
Certainly the strongest of the season so far you had the emotional rollercoaster of wise old Arthur Massey all the way to the story of James, Chloe and their little lad Jude.
Powerful stuff. Especially when Jude looks up and smiles at James on the swing in a manner usually reserved for me gazing at Karl Connolly. From outside his window.
Less powerful is this week's Wrexham is the Game where we start a series on what Wrexham need to do to get to the Premier League (yes, really). We have a new fan of the week and we of course review that W2W episode.
As you know, I like to unleash my inner Jordan Belfort (minus many of the quaaludes) and doing a sales pitch. Lots of you are getting this little snippet for free but if you convert to an annual paid subscriber it’ll cost you £15 a year - or 28p per edition.
You get a lot more and what can you get for 28p nowadays? A third of a Freddo? One 20th of this month's Razzle?*
And it gets good after the pay mark. This week Tim solves world hunger with some help from Kevin Dearden and I speak to Taylor Swift about a love of Wrexham. Or is it Tyler Garrett? It’s one or the other.
* For our American readers, Razzle is a British grumble mag, usually found in a bush on your way home from school. Grumble = jazz mag. Or a bongo mag. A Bluey. Basically, it’s a porno mag.
Quotes of the week: "Everything is temporary. No joy lasts forever. No pain lasts forever, either" - Reds fan Arthur Massey, 100, giving out an absolute pearl of wisdom on Welcome To Wrexham. He’s sort of right, but I’m STILL sore about losing to Newport in the play off final. That will last forever.
Burning issue: I’m right loyal, me
ANDY: Right, firstly anyone saying 'I was there when we lost to Braintree 3-0 on March 11, 2014 so I deserve a ticket for every match ever' can get in the bin.
That was then, this is now. Things have changed.
The mooted loyalty scheme is probably a season or two too late (especially for my planned Stockport and Tranmere visits last term) but it's here now.
Well, is it? The doc most of us have shared on our WhatsApp groups isn't yet official. However if it is a fake, kudos to the forger - you should probably work in some area of loyalty scheme development.
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