Brady hypes Birmingham-Wrexham rivalry: We'll 'talk a lot of smack'

Birmingham City minority owner Tom Brady wants the club to continue spending to fuel its rivalry with Wrexham in the Championship.

"We've got to. We've got to keep up with one another," Brady told "The Sports Agents" podcast.

Birmingham and Wrexham were both promoted from the third tier last season after making huge splashes in the transfer market. Their two League One meetings were dubbed the "Hollywood derby" due to the presence of seven-time Super Bowl champion Brady and Wrexham's co-owners, actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.

Brady joined the Birmingham ownership group in August 2023. The team subsequently suffered relegation to League One, then secured an instant return to the Championship following last summer's record-breaking recruitment drive. Wrexham have been similarly aggressive with their transfer business since Reynolds and McElhenney assumed control in 2021, but their journey - which is tracked on the award-winning documentary series "Welcome to Wrexham" - has encountered few hurdles during three successive promotions that began in the fifth division.

"Wrexham have, I'd say, done an incredible job. I mean, you can't be anything but excited about what they've done for that club," Brady said. "To invest in the club, where they were at, and to create the awareness around the world for this amazing team and a pretty small city, and the way the players have responded has been nothing short of remarkable. I'm so impressed by Wrexham, what they do on the pitch, off the pitch - again, they're in a great position to succeed as well."

Birmingham and Wrexham's first meeting of the 2025-26 Championship campaign is currently set for October. Birmingham are considered more likely than Wrexham to earn promotion to the Premier League, according to Oddschecker's comparison of British betting companies.

"We're going to talk a lot of smack in the meantime between all of us because it's pretty fun theater, and I think there's some little friendly side bets going on," Brady said. "But make no mistake, the people who are going to decide the fate of those games are the players wearing those jerseys."