NFL legend Tom Brady might struggle to understand the finer points of football, but it didn’t stop him sacking a legend of the game.
Wayne Rooney responded last week to the humiliation of Brady questioning his “work ethic”.
Rooney suggested that Brady didn’t understand that football had a much longer season than the three months of NFL and that at times “players need a rest”.
However, the difference of approach went wider than Rooney. The new owners went through seven managers in the first ten months in charge.
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Undoubtedly, the American money wants success on the field and a return on their investment but creating non-football entertainment is now a central part of the revenue model.
We heard Brady’s reasons for sacking the Manchester United all-time top goalscorer because the Birmingham story is already an Amazon Prime series.
For football, the streaming charts may now be as important as the league table.
Built In Birmingham follows the Welcome to Wrexham formula so closely that its celebrity owner, Rob McElhenney, makes a visit along with the blingiest of all footballers, David Beckham.
Disney, the home of Welcome To Wrexham, has now released a second celebrity football documentary.
Necaxa sees former Desperate Housewife Eva Longoria take control of a former championship team which has fallen from its once lofty perch.
Eva Longoria and co-owner Rob McElhenney
Eva Longoria and co-owner Rob McElhenney
Necaxa was once a Mexico City club which won three championship titles, but because it never owned its own ground, it moved to another city where the locals have yet to take it to their heart.
In steps Longoria to change things with the injection of some Hollywood pizzazz.
One of the first orders of business is to make a television show about it. Longoria is an executive producer, as are Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney. Yes, them again.
Longoria isn’t a lifelong fan of Necaxa so we need to build some connection and emotion.
She explained that her dad was dedicated to the Dallas Coyboys and therefore she understands his highs and lows of following your team
Also, although Texan, she is a Latino and moved to Mexico City after she married a local.
Reynolds and McElhenney feature from some unknown location with a comic routine about who has the better Spanish.
Longoria pays a visit to Wrexham to see how things are done in Wales and, no doubt, to increase the star count in the owner’s box.
The series, meanwhile, desperately tries to make us care about the team.
We meet the cleaning lady, long-time fans, new fans, the manager, the sporting director and a couple of the players.
Everyone says the right thing (how important Necaxa is to them), particularly when Longoria is in the room.
She tries to win them over with her “rubbish” Spanish and annoying habit of laughing uproariously at every comment.
In reality, very few seem to care. The city inhabitants haven’t bonded with the team, and every time they lose, the attendances fall.
It’s very different from Wrexham, where the town was desperate for its club to succeed and those desires translated through the screen to the viewer.
Longoria, who seems to be well-meaning, tries hard but her American schmaltz is hard to take.
Take this at the end of episode two, after a rare win for the team and over slow-motion pictures of fans celebrating.
“This is Necaxa. We fall, we struggle. It hurts but we never lower our heads because for us it’s not just about winning matches. It’s about fighting with everything we have. And right in those moments, when every feeling is on the surface, is when we really start to win people over. One heart at a time.”
Ah jaysus.