Part 85: Interlude: The God-King in Wales Speaks

Interlude: “The God-King in Wales Speaks”
May 19, 2019

(The following is an excerpt from a feature interview with Wrexham manager Scott Brown)



By Connor Watkin


It was drizzling as I drove into Wrexham last week. It's always drizzling in Wrexham, in all my trips to the small town near the border with England I seldom saw a ray of sunshine. But as I drove into the town centre, I noticed that despite the incessant sprinkling from the heavens not a soul on the streets looked anything other than elated.

That's no surprise, the natives have every reason to be ecstatic right now thanks to the ray of sunshine that is their local football club. Over the last five years a miraculous transformation has occurred. As I park in the lot near the recently renovated Racecourse Grounds stadium, I can't help but be awestruck by the changes wrought in just half a decade by a mad Yank with a gleam in his eye and fire in his gut.

Scott Brown will become the first American to ever coach in the Barclay's Premier League next season. He's guided the Red Dragons to heights the club has never seen before in it's hundred and fifty-five year history, bringing this town nestled in the hills of North Wales top division football for the first time despite the club's claim to being the third oldest professional squad in the world. He must be in the short kist for greatest American coach in history, which is not meant as a slight against him but instead an impressive feat for a man who admittedly had never coached so much as a youth team prior to turning thirty years old.

I walked into the offices at the stadium, much expanded and updated from when the club languished outside of the Football League in the Conference National. It buzzed with activity, another change from those doldrum days. But Brown's office remains unchanged since his arrival at the club in October of 2014, a small room with a desk with two uncomfortable chairs arrayed on each side. The one change for the moment is that he sits, dressed resplendent in American baseball apparel from the Red Socks franchise of his former hometown of Boston, on a large round ball as he gazes intently at his laptablet.

What follows is a condensed version of our conversation, which lasted late into the evening and continued at the Turf, perambulated to the Wrexham Lager Social Club, extended to Horse and Jockey, sidled through the Old Vaults, jaunted onwards to the Golden Lion, crossed the street to The Royal Oak, and came blessedly to an end in heavy inebriation on the part of your correspondent at the Nags Head. At each public house the coach was feted by punters chanting “God-King in Wales” after the styling given to him by The Dragonz Lair (a local supporter's podcast), and climbing over their fellow drinkers to buy this Yankee import a brew, and at each pub the bartenders reached into a refrigerator to deliver a chilled, brutally hopped, and highly alcoholic beer to the man of the past five years. I am grateful for my recorder, as I otherwise could never have fully recollected all the topics touched upon over the hours.

: I wanted to offer again my sincerest congratulations, your accomplishments here are nothing less than unprecedented.

: Well, that's really something coming from you, you wily dog. But thank you. I'm still a bit in shock myself, I always believed that our team had the quality to hang with the Championship teams, but to earn promotion in just one year is remarkable.

: I'm sure you've been asked this more times than you can count, but how did you do it?

: I've said over and over, youth is our strength and our way forward. Just look at what Scott Shirra did for us over the home stretch. He's come an incredible way from just two years ago when we signed him from Falkirk. He had three goals and an assist that final month, none better than the one that put us up on Sunderland.




: But that can't be the only thing-

: It's a large part of our success. Just look at Chris Todd, he also showed his quality when we most needed it this season, and he was the first of my signings when I arrived at Wrexham.




: A lot of players stepped up this year, especially when Stinky Pete (Pete Elliot, the Australian National Team's manager) called up Meteor for a full third of our season to beat on Laos.

: I recall you were quite irritated at that.

: Indeed. I think if anything it hurts the Australians for the future, their players will be less popular in the top leagues if Australia makes a habit of calling up their best for long, insignificant tournaments. That will stunt their growth, and they won't even be able to make the World Cup.

: Speaking of Mateo Mujkic, how confident are you about keeping him at the club. He's been a special player for you over the last two years.

: I'm positive he'll stay with us. His contract runs for the next three years and I have every intention of keeping him with us. We're not done yet, and I know Mateo wants to play at the highest level of football in the world.

: If you mean the Europa League-

: I mean the Champion's League.

: Don't you think that's a bit ambitious? There's six or seven clubs already fighting for the four spots and they all have vastly more financial resources.

: I just won back to back to back promotions. I've won three Manager of the Year awards in a row. I've raised this club four leagues in five years. I've done it all while on a budget half that our closest competitors. Do you really doubt me?

: No, just-

: It will take a few years, but we will get there. And Meteor will be with us when we arrive.

: That's interesting, as you've been an unsentimental man when it comes to letting players go. As you rise through the ranks, what happens to players like Michael Coulson and Justin Bailey who have been excellent servants to the club during your tenure?



: Well, I can officially say that Justin will be back with us next season. I also proffered a contract to Michael, but he's chosen to move on. I'm disappointed to see him go, and I know the fans will be as well.




: What do you say to the people who say that Bailey doesn't have the skills to play at the next level?

: Those geniuses were saying Bailey couldn't play at the League One level. Bailey may look like a Honda next to a Lamborghini at the next level, but the lad had eight assists as a part time player. I have full faith that he'll still be a useful member of the team in the future. You said I was unsentimental, would I have brought him back if I didn't believe that?

: I guess not. What about your captain, Stuart Simpson? He's another player that many say won't rate in the Premier League.




: Simpson is a pro's pro. He knows what he has to do. I made him captain for a reason, and that's because he always does what's best for the team. He'll keep doing that. Likewise, I'm sure Harrison knows what he has to do to be a force at the best level. But he's still faster than almost anyone on a Premier League pitch, and speed kills.




: (At this point in the night I was not at my best, I've cleaned up my questions as best I could. It should be noted that Brown was still quite lucid) Are there any players you wish hadn't gotten away?

: At Wrexham? No. Tony Price was tired of the game and retired after he left us.



: Luke Reid was getting old, and even he would admit that he was hot blooded.



: Stuart Martin has had a decent career, but Poole was just as good for us as he was.



: And don't even get me started on Nsangou. I was happy to offload him to Tackleford.



: And that brings us to Tackleford. You still bitter about your ouster?

: Look, no one likes being sacked. It's especially galling when you get sacked for merely losing two games in a row. And it does warm the cockles of my heart that they're flailing in League One despite all that Cadbury money, while we've left them in the dust. But if I'd never been fired, I'd never have come to Wrexham and we'd never have this story here. In all, it was a lucky turn of fate. And these days our players are just as good or better than the likes of Rosetti and Duchamps. I'm grateful for Yuri Kropotkin for giving me my start as a manager, and he died too soon. But I don't miss Tackleford one whit. They can watch us and imagine what it might have been like to have me as manager.




: You don't miss anyfin' from that squad?

: I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss Stuart Mair. I'm impressed with the young player he's grown into. Have you seen recent shots of him? He's what the bros in America call swole. That's impressive considering what a rail think lad he was when he came to us. I also keep in touch with Sam Edwards, who was better with the ball on a throw-in than anyone I've ever seen. He's doing well, living in London with his kids.




: You lot play a very uptempo, attacking game. How's that going to serve when you're at Old Trafford or the Emirates?



: It's something I've been thinking about. The other coaches and I have already started working out how to best play our game while not getting completely undone at the back. I think you might see us playing five centrebacks, or start working on a 4-4-1-1 to give our fullbacks some support, especially as our worst breakdowns this last year came from mistakes made by our fullbacks not minding their defensive duties.

At this point, I felt that I must make my exit, before embarrassing myself. As I proceeded to my accommodations, Coach Brown was being carried to the next pub on the shoulders of a crowd of men in Wrexham shirts bearing the names of Harrison, Mujkic, Simpson, Bailey, and more. They were chanting a new song about their adopted lord of Wales.