Welcome to Wrexham, for Chelsea FC, literally. What an exciting opportunity this will be for the southwest London club, and their squad, as Wrexham are now as Hollywood as it gets. Pedro Neto, Dario Essugo, Estevao Willian, Mykhailo Mudryk, Jamie Gittens and Levi Colwill will all miss out on featuring here for the Blues, and we’ll go in depth on that in a bit.
For now, a little more on why Wrexham is indeed such a thing now.
FA Cup Round of 16 FYIs
Chelsea FC at Wrexham AFC
Kickoff: Saturday March 7, 5:45pm, Racecourse Ground, Wrexham, Wales, UK
More on Wrexham’s just announced summer friendly at Yankee Stadium: go here
Wrexham Rising
In February of 2021, Hollywood actors Rob Mac (formerly McElhenney) and Ryan Reynolds bought the club, and then a popular TV series, Welcome to Wrexham was born. The show added publicity and drove revenue to the club, and they then invested that positive financial injection into building up the team. This led to three consecutive promotions up the FA pyramid, which had never been done before.
They were way down in the fifth tier, the National League, in the 2022-23 season. And today they’re in the second-tier Championship, so kudos to them.
And as we learned yesterday, Wrexham will play Liverpool in a preseason friendly at Yankee Stadium this summer.
Blues Team News
Neto is still suspended, as the disciplinary infractions do carry over from one Football Association competition to the other. He’ll be eligible to feature again in the home clash against Newcastle on March 14. Also likely to return in that match are Estevao Willian (thigh) and Dario Essugo (undisclosed).
Jamie Gittens (thigh) is about a week or two behind them while Colwill is likely done for the season. The FA Cup is Chelsea’s best hope for a trophy this season, so they’ll approach this match with a very dedicated purpose.
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network, RG.org and Ratings.org. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes and the Washington Post.