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I thought I heard that they talked to some "experts" who helped identify the club for various reasons, probably things like affordability and having fans willing to go on camera, take part in the documentary. The 3rd and 4th episodes showed some of the hardcore supporters, how much the club means to the town. Of course there are tons of clubs in the UK and Europe with avid supporters, where soccer is everything to the community. I wonder if economic decline of these towns made them cling even more to the club. There was a documentary series on boys around 10-14 playing football, first Friday Night Tykes, based in small town Texas. Then a spinoff called Friday Night Tykes Steel Country, based in Western PA. This one was based in towns not dissimilar from Wrexham, in that these were steel mill towns or one built steel bridges and was called American Bridge or something like that, after the name of the company. But steel mills closed down long time ago and there was literally rusting old mills and bridges in this area. There was high unemployment and a lot of opioid use, which they really didn't touch on. But there were dedicated coaches, usually ex-military, who tried to keep up these pee wee football leagues. Some didn't have money for the uniforms or helmets. I don't think boys football teams had the kind of dedication that is shown in Welcome to Wrexham, other than a few of the parents. Wrexham, the whole community seems to be behind the club but maybe a lot of that is influenced by Hollywood stars intervening and all the cameras around. So the cameras aren't just capturing the behavior of Wrexham supporters but is actually shaping or altering it, just by their very presence.

Hmm, so they may be filming again right now? I don't think a renewal has been announced but they've aired about half the episodes so they should know what the ratings are. They promoted it a good deal too.

Sarah couldn't win, Angela and Alyssa were going to block her. But if all the other women ganged up on Angela for instance, she would have finished last. Sarah says she runs marathons, though maybe not suited to sprint. Angela looks like a runner too. I don't know how much the other women run but two regular runners have to be threats in the Final. They might get screwed by puzzles or an eating challenge but for the parts where they're doing a lot of running or hiking or climbing up hills, those runners in good CV condition would have a leg up. So if one of them does come in first among the women, then the other women basically missed a chance to knock one of them out.

Best strategy would have been to put Angela into elimination by blocking her first in the Daily. Sarah didn't convince anyone but she was right. However, Angela probably would have beaten any other woman in that hamster wheel elimination.

Well we assume that's how TJ would have done it, make one of the winners go into elimination if there was a deadlock If the women didn't sense that there was an alliance, based on them sending in Leo last week, they should have known. But looks like Sarah was depending on some of the men who had already agreed to be in the alliance. The people out of alliance are David, Sarah, Justine and Cayla. Desi may or may not be in the big alliance.

So episodes 3 and 4, they seem to get momentum with the signing of the manager and the scorer but apparently their defense isn't too good Seems they've dropped too many points to have a chance to win the National League. They have to be the only club in the NL with sponsorship from international brands like Expedia and TikTok. I noticed there was a TikTok commercial too during one of the episodes. I usually skip past commercials so I don't know if Expedia are also sponsoring the show in addition to the club.

But she was right though, the Fab Five are out of Angela/Alyssa and the 4 Survivor men alliance. If they don't band together they get picked off one by one. And what Sarah proposed was the best move for the other women, one of them would go home and the women wouldn't have to face one of the top 2 or 3 women in the Final. Desi herself said it, if Angela makes it to the Final, she might as well not leave the starting line because she can't run with her. Danny convinced Desi to go along with his choice. But is she now going to be protected by the Angela/Alyssa/4 Survivor men alliance? Next episode they're probably going to target David but then the other remaining men are the 4 in the alliance if I counted it correctly. So the alliance breaks up at that point, unless Dominick or Enzo go quietly when one of the is voted in.

On the outside, Harper, Yaz and Robert are all successful, throwing money around at their old haunts or offering to support her brother. Robert spoke arrogantly to the young recruit about joining the best, even though he's kind of a peon there, not in a position to offer anything. Now he has to jump whenever Nicole tells him to and his dick isn't working so he can't pursue better relationships right now, like Venetia, the young first-year who asked him out for a drink. (It's interesting, Venetia blamed her job at Pierson for driving her back to smoking. But as we know, Harper, Yaz and Robert have been driven by their jobs to much worse stuff than tobacco) They all have wounds from their dysfunctional family. Robert's mother, who pushed him to high achievement, died before he got hired. Harper is estranged from her mother but sought to be close to her brother, who pushes her away, blames her in part for his inability to live up to their mother's expectations. And Yaz felt close to Theresa, her old nanny in Berlin but turns out Theresa is one of her father's NDA'd conquests. And not coincidentally, for all their professional successes, they're all struggling in their personal relationships.

They wanted a larger place, not a part of some complex so there would be HOA fees, so they're kind of away from town amenities like restaurants. Homes were beautiful but I see a lot of dusty terrain around those beautiful pools. Wonder how windy it gets down there. I guess CEO Chris has a thing about control so he didn't want HOA fees no matter how cheaper the property.

Wonder if Shep was a little pissed that she made him apologize to Craig the night before so they could have a good night.

Corlys overplayed his hand. Otto outplayed him. Also, he may have groomed his daughter to be available to marry the king for years, it's not some improvisation. Alicent is suppose to be a contemporary of Raynera but the actress seems to be quite a bit older than Milly Adcock. King doesn't really want to remarry but maybe he felt more comfortable with Alicent, who put in the work. Of course among real kings and queens, things like chemistry and mutual attraction were irrelevant. If people think Laena was too young, there are princesses who were betrothed so young that they were called the Infanta.

Interior is trending badly. The guests wanted other drinks, no more wines. Kyle thinks he's found the love of his life. Are they together now? But those guests talked about how they're going to have to go back to mac and cheese after having all this gourmet food over a 2-day charter. Yeah these kids didn't pay no 5 or 6 figure charter fee. They were picked out by casting. Maybe they had some idea that Kyle would be so thirsty for one of them. Oh the games thing, people running through the yacht while taking alcoholic drinks and dripping wet all over the deck, that's a brilliant idea from a safety POV.

Here's one of the GoT quote threads. The HoTD writers need to peruse it and write some funny lines, may even need to create characters who would deliver them.

Jackie pretends not to have seen Dryden with the young woman who was looking woozy. He's still sleeping with Letitia, whom Jenny finds out about. But he's also doing the investigative legwork to nail Dryden for raping and killing the young woman, gets a copy of the post-mortem showing she was on Quaaludes, which would be evidence of rape. DeCourcy subpoenas him to testify in the cop shooter case and Shimizu, his former boss, should be grateful but not enough when Jenny comes to her asked her to give Jackie his job back. Jenny is undeterred, hires a scuba diver to retrieve the badge that Jackie threw into Boston harbor -- maybe the diver also found remnants of an old tea party as well. Jenny is very bored and lonely, finds out Jackie is cheating on her again but begs him to come home and is trying to get him his job back. Must be that sweet love from the Anita Baker song they played repeatedly on this episode, must have cost a pretty penny. By contrast, Caysen's wife left him because she doesn't want him to be a cop any more but Jenny is all about standing by her man. Except when she was trying to get with the hot young priest. She needs to have an affair, even though they're trying to give Jackie a bit of a redemption arc, as he will probably take down Dryden.

JP is going to be in most of the season in these flashbacks. He’s trying to control Ursula the same way he controls his wife.

Well the owners are Americans and they're probably only too happy to take Chevy money. Who knows why Chevy sponsored a UK team.

Not a fan of Klobuchar, whose true colors were shown in the way she treated subordinates. As for the Hunter Biden laptop, there's no proof that Joe Biden did anything illegal. Maybe his son tried to get him to meet with his "clients" but there's no proof he ever did. And the "evidence" on that laptop is highly suspect since there's no established secure chain of custody before Republican operatives found it. This is what Bill wants to take his stand, that Hunter Biden may have tried to peddle influence and access to his father? He needs a lot more proof than a laptop unless that laptop has a video of Joe Biden saying "fine I will do x for you if you pay Hunter y." I presume we'd have seen such a smoking gun video by now if it existed. We may see it some day when deep fakes are refined enough to fool people.

I wouldn't be surprised if the $2.5 million investment is more than offset by what FX is paying them to do the show. But neither of them, especially RR, probably need the TV money. They had to convince the Wrexham supporters to let them buy the team but they are actors after all. Typical Hollywood move would be to buddy up to the owners of Liverpool or Man U. and try to go see some matches. I think there are also celebrities who have some minor shares, like Lebron James knows the Boston group which owns Liverpool so he has some percentage of the club.

Remember a few seasons ago he was all about taking the high road when it comes to Kathryn when most of the cast wanted nothing to do with her? Producers made them do scenes with her, pretend they were some tight social circle. Now he’s this “real” guy. He said something about the pussification of America when people objected to him verbally abusing Taylor. They’re being filmed for a TV show and she wouldn’t have reacted to his insult if Olivia and others didn’t react? Is she an aspiring actress herself? In the first part of this episode Taylor talked Shep into apologizing to Craig and he had this sour puss that he had to do it. Then Craig and Austen arguing. What a bonanza for the producers, all this bickering over dinner. These women try To get the guys to act like grown but Taylor forgives Shep and Olivia forgives Austen. So fake showmances go on. Speaking of fake, in the previews for next episode, Naomi’s mother acts happy about her daughter dating Whitney and Paige and Naomi are going to have their big one on one scene. Is there no Southern Charm on the show than these phony relationships?

Jersey sales in soccer can generate a ton of money though it's usually tied to a specific player. Maybe not a huge factor in the National League though.

I presume her videos are popular because she’s photogenic.

I googled and saw that they paid $2.5 million. a fraction of what a club in a higher division would cost. but How do they improve team at that level? Can they buy better players as they do at higher division clubs? that is when their dedication will be tested.

Leo said they put in an interview from a different day so they faked it to make him look upset and called others snakes. He also said he thought he won the Daily. That's what was always shady about The Challenge, there's no transparency so you have to take their word who actually won these close Daily challenges.

You have to really be trained for that though. In football, even smaller players will know how to go after the legs of bigger players. They train their neck muscles and know how to lead with the head. Otherwise, you could suffer a concussion if you get kneed in the head. You might do some damage to the other guy's knee but head injury as well as cervical injuries are a real risk. Why is this one of CT's favorites? They ALWAYS match up two players of very unequal size and weight. It's rarely an even fight, don't think it goes to 3 rounds because one guy is bigger and does better on the collision. In football, smaller players are coached to know better than to take on a guy directly who outweighs him by 40 or more pounds. Either go low for a low tackle or chop block or use speed to evade the collision. I don't know how they chose who did the water cannons. It was always an ally, not really trying to knock out the players running on the platform. It was great idea but either don't have the water cannons at all or have someone who is going to make it tougher for the competitors, not washing out the soap for them. You have to give credit to Angela and Tyson, they smartly made alliances and Leo was small and also not in an alliance. He potentially could have won and sent Tyson in. BB and Survivor teams came into the game with greater numbers and they retained or increased their numerical advantage so even without everyone voting, now alliances have a greater effect on who gets sent into elimination. But if the alliance is too big, they have to know, especially on the men's side, that those at the bottom of the totem pole will get sent into elimination. They don't know how many people will go to the Final, maybe at most 10-12. But maybe as few as 6 if it's a completely individual game and only one person wins the big money, rather than a pair.

Watching the pilot too. Interesting that they never met each other before the purchase. Purchase price was $2.5 million. But how much will they spend to move to try to get the team promoted?