Why it’s fine for Tom Brady & Ryan Reynolds to ‘bring mates over’ for now – with celebrity guests being embraced at Birmingham & Wrexham

A-list investment has been embraced at St Andrew’s and StoK Racecourse, with famous faces occupying prominent roles on boards in the West Midlands and North Wales. NFL legend Brady fills an advisory role at Birmingham, while Hollywood superstar Reynolds is co-owner of Wrexham alongside Rob McElhenney.

The likes of Channing Tatum, Hugh Jackman and Paul Rudd have taken in the live Red Dragons experience, while David Beckham joined Brady in the stands for Birmingham’s first meeting with Wrexham in the 2024-25 campaign – as they both battle for promotion out of League One.

Ex-England international Nigel Winterburn, who started out on the books at Birmingham, has – speaking in association with William Hill – told GOAL when asked if celebrity visitors to EFL fixtures should be considered no bad thing: “I don’t think so. You can reverse that round and if they bring them in and they are struggling, then you have got all of these famous faces milling around, then maybe it looks a little bit ‘you have brought your mates over but we’re struggling’. That’s not happening at the moment with Birmingham because if they keep the form they are on, they are going to be getting promoted. Wrexham have had an unbelievable run as well.

“It gives you that exposure and maybe it encourages the local community, more people to turn up and enjoy watching your team. I think it does do that. I don’t think at the moment we can be critical of the two clubs because one is on a slightly longer journey, in Wrexham, because those guys have been in place a bit longer, but you look at both clubs and they are flying high in the division and we wait to come to the pressure point into the last 10 games of the season, when everybody starts to talk about ‘with the spending power they have got, they should be promoted’. It doesn’t always work like that, so let’s wait and see. I don’t see anything wrong with it at the moment.”

Reynolds and McElhenney have overseen back-to-back promotions at Wrexham, delivering an award-winning documentary series along the way, and Winterburn added when asked what NFL legend Brady brings to the party at Birmingham: “You have brought in somebody that is star-studded, in terms of ownership of your club, and you want someone that is reliable, is going to try and move your club forward and is going to be there to support the club, the manager, along that journey – which is hopefully for a long period of time and a successful period of time. The bits I’ve seen and switching a little bit to Wrexham, who are in a similar situation, Phil Parkinson has been saying that the backing he gets from those two guys is sensational. The one thing they don’t do is interfere with the team. When you put a manager in charge, you trust that manager. You can have your opinions but you’ve got to let the manager and the assistants that he has around him do their job.

“I think when you get famous, celebrity, owners into a football club, the first thing you want to know is that they are in it for the long haul, it’s not just a bit of a gimmick, and they are there to support the fans, the players and the manager. What we all want, especially in the lower leagues, is to try and come up and get as far as you can. If you are in the Premier League, it’s about pushing from bottom half to top half and trying to challenge for trophies. If I was part of those clubs, I would be thinking: stability, good leadership but put my trust in the manager and the assistants that I have there working for the club.”

Brady is not having to dig as deep into his pockets as Reynolds and McElhenney, with the seven-time Super Bowl winner on hand to offer words of wisdom rather than money in the bank. He has, however, seen Birmingham recover from the disappointment of relegation in 2023-24 to sit top of the League One table this time around.