This article contains spoilers for Welcome to Wrexham Season 3 episode 3
Highlights
- Wrexham women's team is finally getting paid.
- Sports psychology is helping the Red Dragons take thins to the next level.
- Arsenal academy keeper Arthur Okonkwo crushes it for Wrexham.
It is a new season of Welcome to Wrexham, yet for all the novelty that brings, the aptly titled “Notts Again” sees Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney go back to some familiar tropes from last year in the third episode of season 3. That is because, apart from Wrexham meeting their toughest National League rival, this entry sees the female side of the Red Dragons get a much-deserved upgrade as pro soccer players.
That is the name of the game this week, as Welcome to Wrexham brings back the stars from the women’s squad in Del Morgan, Rebecca Pritchard, Lili Jones and, of course, everyone’s favorite prison guard and goal machine, Rosie Jones. With the rise to semi-pro status for most of the team, the Wrexham women get new salaries, lots more traveling, and even a new place to call home as they leave behind the muddy ground where they played in season 2.
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Despite the reference to their Notts County rivals, Welcome to Wrexham opens with a showcase of all the news the girls are getting, including dedicated physical conditioning coaches, more marketing and actually getting paid to play football. As their star, Jones is the biggest symbol of this, though the striker makes it clear that she still has not left her prison guard job behind, only now splitting her time between a detention center and The Rock, not the movie nor the actor, but Wrexham’s new home stadium.
In Wales’ Adran Premier league, Wrexham women compete against seven other teams. However, much to Ryan Reynolds' own dismay, this smaller competition caps the amount of money they can allocate towards salaries, meaning they can pay their players so much, and why viewers still get to see them at their day jobs. Most of the players go one on one with the camera, as they each get to tell how promotion has changed their lives.
Life is not all sunshine and roses though, as for Mia Roberts, daughter of a former Wrexham hero, and one of the players who did not make the cut into the new semi-pro level. In a way, Roberts’ story mimics that of Wrexham, almost making it to the top without quite getting there; her Everton story is that of many other passionate soccer players who never make it, albeit she being fortunate enough to have a college background to fall back on.
So how is pro life going for the women? They kick off their season with a surprising 3-3 draw versus Swansea that shows plenty of promise, before being dismissed 3-0 by league juggernauts Cardiff City. Overall, the team puts on a good show, but they are quite aware of the time they will need to raise their game once more to compete with the rest.
The men’s front has taken a different turn this week, with player and human emotion being at the forefront of the episode thanks to team psychologist Sam Kotadia. Wrexham’s sports therapist talks about seeing the game from a different angle, sort of leaving behind the rougher image associated with sports in favor of a more individualized form of performance coaching that seeks to elevate each player’s strengths.
Kotadia’s counseling may seem simple enough, but his approach to encourage players to only focus on the path and not the outcome, or reducing performance anxiety, has surely helped the likes of Ollie Palmer put some goals in. On a citizen level, Dan Rowe shares his own father and son story as the event that prompted him to run his own men’s support group to help Wrexham locals adopt a similar philosophy to talk about their emotions.
In soccer terms, all this motivational talk does little to prevent Wrexham getting battered 5-0 by old rivals Stockport County, in what coach Parkinson calls out as one of the team’s worst performances since Welcome to Wrexham started. Despite not being at fault for the goals, the defeat fast tracked the signing of Arsenal academy keeper Arthur Okonkwo, who starts putting on a show from day one.
There are not many young guns in the Wrexham team, and Okonkwo’s signing shows that when a good Football Manager or EA Sports FC 24 goalkeeper prospect shows up, it is the front office’s job to seize that opportunity. Okonkwo is key in adding some much-needed solidity back into the Wrexham defense, right on time for the clash against bitter rivals and number one Welcome to Wrexham haters, Notts County.
It is truly hilarious to see Reynolds and McElhenney laugh at the way their rivalry with Notts County has evolved, with the other team’s fan accounts constantly giving the Hollywood duo a tough time on social media. In the end, everything is starting to click for Wrexham — new signings look right at home, Okonkwo adds some certainty to the keeper position, Mullin is back to 100%, and the team has plenty of goalscoring options now.
A 2-0 win at home is followed by a very valuable message from Kotadia, Parkinson, Reynolds and McElhenney: efforts and resilience means everything for this team, and as Wrexham continues to grow, the incremental gains will be much smaller. As it turns out in Welcome to Wrexham, the XP grind is just like in video games; the higher you go, the more it takes to keep leveling up.
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