"Wrexham sell more shirts than Arsenal in US!" - On loan Gunner on life in Wales
Hollywood came to Wrexham earlier this month in the shape of the prestigious Emmy award to further endorse the success of the club’s Tinseltown backed documentary.
‘Welcome To Wrexham’ the brainchild of the Welsh club’s owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenny following the exploits of Phil Parkinson’s side picked up the gong at American TV’s biggest occasion of the year in Los Angeles.
It was further evidence that promising Arsenal keeper Arthur Okonkwo made the right choice to join the Red Dragons on loan for the season, the 22-year-old adding: “I’m told Wrexham sell more shirts than Arsenal in the USA.”
Which is true and the Emmy proudly paraded in ‘The Turf’, the pub in the corner of the SToK Racecourse Ground by Leighton Cox one of the documentary’s production staff, is further proof of Wrexham’s growing popularity on the other side of the Atlantic.
And the club sold out its 7,000 allocation for Monday night’s FA Cup fourth round trip to Championship Blackburn Rovers a week ago.
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Okonkwo is earning valuable first-team experience at Wrexham (Paul Greenwood/REX/Shutterstock)It’s a huge contrast to the first half of last season when Okonkwo joined Crewe on loan, the England Under 18 international admitting: “We were lucky to get 3,000 and here at Wrexham we are getting 12,000 or whatever, every game. And there were no Hollywood owners at Crewe! It’s a completely different experience.”
But the second half of the season brought the player, who also qualifies to represent Nigeria, a Cup winners medal. He joined Sturm Graz who went on to land the Austrian Cup.
Okonkwo impressed as Wrexham beat Shrewsbury in the last round (Getty Images)“We played Rapid Vienna. There were 30 odd thousand watching. It was a sell-out and we won 2-0.” he beamed. The Cup is the second biggest thing you can win in the country. It was huge for the city. They hadn’t won anything for quite a few years so was a good moment not only for the players but for the city. The fans went crazy. It was a great experience on the bus touring the city.
Okonkwo will be the man in the mask at Ewood Park, the legacy of a broken jaw, suffered in a League Two game against Harrogate. He explained: “I will probably have it for a few more weeks and they’ll probably give me the option if I want to keep it for the rest of the season or take it off.
"I have full confidence with it on. The question is how I will feel when I take it off. I’ll have to wait and see when the time is right in training. I need to take a hit in training, better that than in a match.”
After beating local rivals, League One Shrewsbury Town, in the last round Okonkwo insists going to Blackburn holds no fear. ““The players have told me already about the experiences they had last season. Hopefully we can make some more magic against Blackburn.”
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