Wrexham fans dreaming of European football one day returning to the Racecourse can already find a documentary about the last time it happened – by the man who helped keep their ground.
The New Saints owner, Mike Harris, has now even matched the Dragons with a fly-on-the-wall documentary of the Welsh champions.
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Wrexham’s Disney + show has been able to showcase the club’s meteoric rise after three straight promotions.
Wrexham stadium plans
Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds are next hoping to oversee a major redevelopment of the Racecourse Ground after receiving an £18million grant in public money to assist with upgrades.
However, any improvements may have been impossible had Wrexham’s former owners sold the land on which the site stands.
TNS chairman Harris told eSPORTY that he played a part in the subsequent court ruling that saw the Racecourse remain in the hands of the club’s administrators.
“We’re only down the road from Wrexham, and so we’ve had a long sort of knowledge of each other’s clubs,” he said.
“I did look at buying the club about 20 years ago, and it wasn’t the right time for me, but I’d like to hope… they might not recognise it, but some of the advice I gave them did get their land back off the previous owner who’d tried to sell it for a pound.
“We have a long history, predominantly as rivals, but obviously, they play in the English system, we play in the Welsh, and historically, we have used it in Europe on a number of occasions back in the day.”
The most memorable of those times came in 2005, less than a decade after Harris had taken over Welsh minnows Llansantfraid FC.
TNS – then named for his ex-company, Total Network Solutions – were drawn in a two-legged Champions League qualifier against holders Liverpool, mere months after the ‘Miracle of Istanbul’.
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The team then played at a 2,000-capacity recreation ground that failed to meet UEFA requirements, leading to the Racecourse switch.
Harris added: “It was a great experience. I remember both legs extremely well. It’s one where I think we put up a better fight than they were expecting.
“[Rafael Benitez], who was manager at the time, cancelled their summer training camp because he expected to win 7-8, 9-0, and we held them to a 3-0 defeat.
“But it took Steven Gerrard, an exceptional performance by him, to make the difference.
“I think if he’d have gone to Chelsea that summer, we could have been looking at a game that was a lot closer.”
Ironically, that sentiment may have also applied had TNS managed to get Liverpool’s all-time leading goalscorer to play against them!
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Liverpool icon almost came out of retirement at age 43 to face the Reds
Ian Rush, a two-time European Cup winner at Anfield, admitted he was nearly tempted into donning the boots at age 43.
“It got close,” he told the Echo in 2022. “Mike Harris, who is still the owner of TNS now, asked me if I would come out of retirement.
“It was nice to be asked, a good thing, and I did consider it. But I felt it wasn’t worth it.”
Harris explained to eSPORTY: “Ian Rush was a president of the club. He’s a great friend of mine. There’s a legendary interview on Sky if you can actually find it, but he came down to watch me play Sunday football, and the cameras were there.
“I scored, and they captured that moment on TV, and they were interviewing him later in the day and said, ‘Hey Rushy, is it right you might be bringing your boots out?’ And then somebody interrupted Rushy and said, ‘I don’t think Rushy needs to get his boots out. The chairman can score as well’.”
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Rush, who opened TNS’ 500-seater stand four years prior, was involved when the club faced Manchester City in the 2003 UEFA Cup.
The Welsh side ultimately weren’t ‘dancing in the streets of Total Network Solutions’ as famously suggested by eSPORTY’s Jeff Stelling after suffering a 7-0 aggregate defeat.
But TNS still holds the honour of playing the first official match at the Etihad, something Harris admitted remains ‘very special.’
“We’ve done quite a number of things, really,” he claimed. “If you look at the qualifying rounds, the Liverpool game was the fastest ever sold-out Champions League game.
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“The game at Anfield, their first game, was sold out in about 30 minutes. It was also a sellout at Wrexham. When you add the two, it’s the highest aggregate qualifying first-round ever.
“It was the same with the UEFA Cup, which we played City in; we had the full capacity there, which was at the time, 36,000 – we were the first competitive game they played at the City of Manchester Stadium, which is now the Etihad.
“Then, obviously groundbreaking that we played the reverse game at the Millennium Stadium. They’re great days.”
Liverpool icon Rush had helped coach TNS’ strikers ahead of what was the Welsh outfit’s first European match in 24 years against Man City.
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And it nearly paid dividends for the club’s current sporting director and Oldham Athletic assistant, Gary Brabin, in the second leg.
Unfortunately, ex-England goalkeeper David Seaman, famously lobbed by Ronaldinho at the World Cup 12 months earlier, had been rested for Nicky Weaver at the Millennium Stadium.
On the 5-0 first-leg loss at the Etihad, Harris said: “We played so well. We had a young goalkeeper in goal for us then, Gerard Doherty, who went on to play for us for many years.
“Great goalkeeper, only a young lad, perhaps 20 years old at the time.
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“We would say that probably two or three of the goals were through his nervousness. But he went on to play some big games.
“The one disappointment I have is that Gary Brabin, in the return game at the Millennium Stadium, had a wicked shot from the halfway line, which, if they’d kept Seaman in goal, I think that would have been in the back of a net.
“The lad who they played instead that day, he was on the edge of his box, and Brabin put his head down and whacked it.
“It was going straight for the top corner, luckily enough, he just managed to run back at full pelt and tipped it over the bar.”
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Lukaku ‘knocked out’ Wales international
The Etihad is not the only stadium belonging to an English giant to share a history with TNS; a plaque honouring their brief partnership with Chelsea remains outside Stamford Bridge’s Shed End.
And two former Blues stars make up the podium of best players Harris has seen against his side over the years.
Gianfranco Zola bagged a hat-trick in a 6-1 friendly win at Treflan Recreation Ground in Powys in 2002, eight years before 17-year-old Anderlecht substitute Romelu Lukaku bagged twice in a 3-0 triumph.
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Steven Gerrard, I think, is probably number one,” Harris stated. “Then you’ve got to look at Lukaku, as the other, he was playing for Anderlecht then, before his move to Chelsea.
“Steve Evans, whose obviously had six caps for Wales, [Lukaku’s] got the ball knocked him over as if he wasn’t there, the next time he’s booted the ball and knocked him out.
“The guy’s a fantastic footballer. Obviously, that was in competitive games, and you’ve also gotta say, Gianfranco Zola, for his silky skills.
“He came and played piano in the clubhouse afterwards, and you know what, if he wasn’t a footballer, he could have been a pianist.
“He was [that good], and what a gentleman. You’ve gotta say he’s one of the most humble gentlemen I’ve ever met!”
Mike Harris stars in The Road to Europe – The Mike Harris Story, a football documentary like no other, which is available to buy or rent now on Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV.
