New rival for Ryan Reynolds? Darts legend Phil Taylor and singer Robbie Williams considering Wrexham-esque purchase of League One side Port Vale in latest celebrity takeover story

After the success of Hollywood duo Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney at Wrexham, there have been rumours flying around that Taylor and Williams could buy League One strugglers Port Vale. Though Taylor said he has no immediate plans to take over his local club, he left open the possibility of working with the former Take That singer.

Few expected Reynolds and McElhenney to take their ownership of Wrexham seriously, but under their stewardship, the Welsh club have returned to the Football League after a 15-year absence. Taylor and Williams are good friends, and there's no reason why they couldn't have similar success with Vale. The Midlands club have not played higher than the third tier since 2004.

Taylor told OLGB: "Me and Robbie [Williams] are good friends, and his dad is like my second dad, Peter is, and talkSPORT mentioned that Robbie was interested in investing in Port Vale and, if he does, would I be interested? I said well, yeah I think so, but we’d have to see what it is and how much they want and stuff like that. But I’ve heard nothing from Robbie. So, no I think it’s just a rumour."

When asked what his aims would be as Port Vale co-owner, Taylor replied: "Get them to the Premier League. I don’t know in all seriousness to be honest with you, I haven’t got a clue. I’d probably give Barry Hearn [former darts and boxing promoter] a ring and ask his advice. You know, Barry was my ex-manager and because he owned Leyton Orient, he knows a lot more about running a football club than I do, so I’d ask him for a bit of advice."

Port Vale becoming the next Wrexham seems pie-in-the-sky stuff at the moment. In the meantime, Andy Crosby's side will focus on trying to increase the six-point gap between themselves and the League One relegation zone.