At the very lowest end of the English football league, the beautiful game is not so pretty. Proud football clubs that date back more than a century are forced to scrap out a meagre living, surviving in a state of constant dread that one day they'll hear the final whistle for good.
Up in the razzle-dazzle of the Premier League cash may splash about like a toddler in the bath, but down in the fifth tier of the National League money's too tight to mention. Most income is raised through ticket sales to the die-hard supporters who live in the town and have all their hopes, dreams and fulfilment in life invested in the success of "their team". To club and fans alike, football is not a matter of life or death, it's much more important than that (to paraphrase legendary Liverpool manager Bill Shankly).
The problem is once you bottom out into the fifth tier, it's pretty much game over. With drastically reduced funds you can't pay for talent and, even if you somehow scramble some money together, good luck attracting a top player to come slum it with you down in the gutter.
With only two teams out of 24 winning promotion at the end of the season, climbing up and out of the National League is a monumentally difficult challenge for any club. It might as well be a pipe dream for the followers of Wrexham FC, the world's third oldest professional football club (founded in 1864) that sits smack bang in the middle of the working-class town in northern Wales and has a fiercely loyal yet perpetually disappointed fanbase.
However, early in 2021 they were given something to cheer about and given a little razzle-dazzle of their own when two Hollywood superstars appeared out of the blue with an offer to buy the club and a promise to pull them up from the bottom of the National League and set them firmly on the path to eventual Premier League glory.