League 2

AFC Wrexham’s failure to land Harrogate Town’s striker Luke Armstrong for a reported record busting £500,000 during the last transfer window, highlighted the spending power of the Dragons in League 2. Lack of the correct paperwork led to the deal being scuppered. Who wrote the script? With the club’s owners, the artists Ryan Renolds and Rob McElhenney at the helm. Armstrong averages out at a goal every three games, worth a punt? Since the transfer collapsed, Armstrong has hit a dry run, Wrexham to return in the January sales with another punt?

The rest of the splash the cash clubs currently in League 2, who have gone beyond the bounds of duty perhaps with their clubs’ statue, but not necessarily while in League 2. Time to hit the printout, the picks, AFC Barrow bust the club’s bank vaults with a 300,000 outlay for Anthony Wilson from North Ferriby in 2014. Wilson failed to hit the heights, and a year later was moved on milking the rounds on the non-league circuit. At Bradford City, during the clubs Premiership salad days, 3.38 million pounds was laid out for Leeds United’s David Hopkins, a year later Hopkins was sold to Crystal Palace. At Colchester United a club record fee was paid out for Luton Town’s Chris Coyne for £475,000 in January 2008. The US or Eagles were relegated in the same season and Coyne immediately let for Australia and Perth glory, no glorification on that one, money down the shit pan. Crawley Town in 2000 paid 250,000 pounds for striker Richard Brodie from York City, the highest fee paid by a non-league club on a player from a fellow non-league club. The move proved to be a success, with Crawley gaining promotion to the EFL. Cheshire club Crewe Alexander paid out £675,000 for Port Vale’s David Brammer in August 2001, a club record fee still standing, Brammer left for Stoke City in 2004. The Donny’s of Doncaster Rovers reached out to a 1.24 million pound transfer for Sheffield United’s Billy Sharp in July 2010, with the club making a profit on the deal, selling Sharp to Southampton in 2012 for 1.8 million pounds. Sharp returned to Sheffield United in 2015, and transferred to LA Galaxy in the America soccer leagues at the season ending 2023, Part 2 of League 2 will feature in the January 2024 edition.

Always Sunny in Wrexham

Wrexham’s part owner, Rob McElhenney of the Hollywood fame game, who plays a leading role in the American comedy series ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’, compared the Philly city with the city of Wrexham as being of similar comparisons. McElhenney, born in Philadelphia, failed to mention Philly’s ‘zombie city’ in the Kensington area of the city where the locals fly high as kites on a drug riddled trip, fly those flags. Would the Wrexham kin folk be offended? Maybe not, Wrexham City has its own substance abuse sectioned, McElhenney’s subterfuge or perhaps not? It’s the three points that matter ‘It’s Always Sunny in Wrexham’?

League 2 The History

League Two replaced the now defunct Fourth Division for the start of the 2004-5 season, with a new mandatory cap now set in the Division, limiting clubs’ spending on players wages at fifty five percent, and is the most watched fourth tier domestic sports league in the world, to go alongside as being ranked at number fourteen most watched league in world football, staggering stats. To laud the division further, over three million spectators went through the turnstiles last season with clubs’ attendances averaging out at 5,777, to the highest average at the Bantams Bradford City, peaking out at 17,967 Bradford are one of three former Premiership clubs in League 2. In the Prem for two seasons, Bradford City 1999-2001, MK Dons aka Wimbledon 1992-2000 and Swindon Town 1993-94. The longest serving club in the the League is Mansfield Town on fifteen seasons. Champions in 2015-16 Northampton Town hold the record on the points tally with ninety-nine points. The current Premiership club Brentford were champions in 2008-9 on eighty five points. Northampton Town hit the record books again alongside Bristol Rovers with both clubs being promoted on four occasions. The League’s all-time record goal scorers rests with Port Vale’s Tom Pope from the 2012-13 season, and the current Wrexham striker Paul Mullen who pummelled 31 goals for Cambridge United during the 2020-21 season to tie with Pope, all encapsulated with the great historical value of League 2.