For Rutherford a spell in the Welsh leagues followed but time is now spent split between some coaching, taxi-ing two of his boys to football training and working in a showroom of a hardware store.
All a world away from the millions on the line for the internationals in Parkinson’s squad aiming for the Premier League, one that has been rebuilt season on season with £30m-plus spent last summer alone.
“But even though it’s very different, it’s also the same club,” he says, his middle son part of the club’s academy.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to go back now and then and you see some of the same faces, good people, people who gave up their time for free to keep the club afloat.
“It’s a global brand but the football club is still at the heart of it. It’s kept its soul.”
Rutherford is well-qualified to judge. Although the co-owners never reached out after his release, he was invited to sample the US adulation for his old club as part of an invitational Wrexham side in a tournament in North Carolina alongside the likes of Mark Howard, Lee Trundle and Andy Morrell.
“Honestly, it’s hard to put it into words how big it’s become unless you see it,” he says of Wrexham’s new fanbase. “It was just after the club got into League Two, and I actually said when I was out there that they would be in the Premier League in 11 years.
“I don’t know why I didn’t say 10, but I thought they would land in League One for a few years and then take five or six years to get out of the Championship.
“To think they could do it in four is just phenomenal. I don’t want to say it would be a Hollywood story, it’ll be more like something out of Football Manager.”
Either way, there is a final day to script, with Rutherford a reminder that not every ending is a happy one.
“It’s bittersweet that we couldn’t get that promotion to the league and what happened, but I can look back now and say I was one of those who played a small part in the story and be proud of that,” he says.
“It was difficult at the time but hindsight gives you that context and I hope people keep that context if it doesn’t happen this time.
“It would only be a tiny applying of the brakes on an unbelievable journey – they’re still on their way.”
