Wrexham: When the first Hollywood season ended in final-game tears

A spell in the Welsh League followed for Rutherford but the time is now split between some coaching, taking his two sons to football training and working in a hardware store showroom.

Premier League targets are far from the millions on the line for international players in Parkinson’s squad, which has been rebuilt season after season at a cost of more than £30m last summer alone.

“But even though it’s very different, it’s the same club,” he says, his middle son from the club’s academy.

“I’m lucky to go back now and then and you see the same faces, good people, people who have given their time for free to keep the club afloat.

“It’s a global brand but the football club is still at the heart of it. It retains its soul.”

Rutherford is well qualified to judge. Although the co-owners never contacted him after his release, he was invited to sample the US love for his old club as part of an invitational Wrexham team at a tournament in North Carolina, along with Mark Howard, Lee Trundle and Andy Morrell.

“Honestly, it’s hard to put into words how big it’s become unless you see it,” he said of Wrexham’s new fanbase. “It was just after the club went down to League Two, and I actually said when I was there that they would be in the Premier League in 11 years.

“I don’t know why I didn’t say 10, but I thought they would drop down to League One for a couple of years and then take five or six years to get out of the Championship.

“To think they can do it in four is fantastic. I don’t want to say it’s going to be a Hollywood story, it’s going to be like something out of Football Manager.”

Either way, the script has a final day, with Rutherford a reminder that not every ending is happy.

“It’s bittersweet that we didn’t get that promotion in the league and what happened, but I can look back now and say I played a small part in the story and was proud of it,” he says.

“It was difficult at the time but hindsight gives you that context and I hope people keep that context if it doesn’t happen this time.

“This will be a small application of the brakes on an incredible journey – they are still on their way.”