Gareth Ainsworth has left his orange 1969 fastback Ford Mustang in a car park a few streets away. He is not wearing the lucky red snakeskin boots he rocked for the League One play-off final at Wembley in 2020 when his Wycombe Wanderers team were promoted to the Championship, either. He is not wearing his open-necked skin-tight black shirt. Or his leather jacket.
Instead, Ainsworth is standing alone on the pavement outside a coffee shop in the centre of Henley-on-Thames with a takeaway cup in his hand, wearing neutral colours, sensible shoes and an elegant overcoat, just right for a walk by the river in regatta country. If it wasn’t for his long hair, he might almost look inconspicuous.
We walk for a while among the dog owners who are wrapped up against the squalls and the joggers on the Thames Path heading towards the little footbridge that skirts the roiling weir. It is very different from the social life he used to lead: the crowded bars; busy restaurants; playing to rock fans or football supporters; holding them there; keeping their attention.
It is a long way from rock and roll out here. Sometimes, it feels as if we can lose sight of Ainsworth the football man in our enthusiasm for Ainsworth the singer for his band, Cold Blooded Hearts.
In our thirst for difference; for character, there is a danger we overlook the quality of his work. ‘In one breath, people say “There are not enough characters in the game any more”,’ Ainsworth said while speaking to Sportsmail in January 2021. ‘Then the same people will look at my hair or my jacket and say “Look at the state of him”. They can say what they want but the lesson is that it is really important to be yourself.’
Gareth Ainsworth is set to take over at QPR after more than eight years in charge of Wycombe
Ainsworth drives an orange 1969 fastback Ford Mustang and does not want to conform
Ainsworth has worked hard for an opportunity to return to QPR – a club close to his heart
Ainsworth, 47, is not some managerial fly-by-night. He has been in charge of Wycombe for more than eight years, which means he has the longest current tenure as a manager in the League. His work has not gone unnoticed, with QPR now set to bring their former player and caretaker boss back to Loftus Road to replace Neil Critchley, who lasted just 12 games.
Ainsworth has proven he is ready for a job like this. You don’t rescue your small, underfunded side from relegation from League Two then win two promotions to the Championship without being very good at your job.
You don’t mastermind that rise without ever paying a transfer fee and knowing how to improve players and striving every day to do it. You don’t prosper in the cut-throat world of the English lower leagues just because people take a shine to you because you have never renounced your love for Guns N’ Roses and Motley Crue. You don’t take a team like Wycombe into the second tier without belief in yourself and your value system.
‘I don’t want to conform,’ says Ainsworth. ‘I don’t want to blend in. I never have. I enjoy it when people criticise me. I enjoy walking around in my leather jacket just to see the looks you get off people. The question for me is always “Why?” People say “Cut your hair” or “Be a bit smarter”. My question is, “Why?” Because I don’t believe there is a reason why you shouldn’t be you.
People have taken a shine to him because he has never renounced his love for Guns N’ Roses
He spent seven years with the Hoops before managing the team as caretaker in two spells
‘The way I look, the way I dress, it doesn’t make any difference to my performance. If my boys were going to win every game because I had short hair, I’d cut it because I’m a winner and I want to win games but I know it won’t make any difference. There will be a chairman who might say: “I want to employ him but he doesn’t look the part”. And that’s OK, he’s missing out, that’s his choice.
‘Am I an attention-seeker? I like the attention. I don’t go out and seek it. I wouldn’t class myself as an attention-seeker. That’s narcissistic. It has a negative connotation. I’m not afraid of attention. I love being on stage. I’m confident. I’m a people person. With football and music, you’re on the stage. There’s definitely a crossover there. The influence you have over a crowd. The energy you can give the crowd. That’s what I buzz off.
‘I feel fortunate to have this job. I never take it for granted. I just go in to the training ground and try and make these players better than they are every single day, tell them they can achieve things that even they don’t think they can every single day. And that’s my way. That’s my style of management. I think some of our success has been down to the players being allowed to be themselves.
‘They are allowed to express themselves and not just in football. I hear discussions on the bus sometimes or at lunchtime where they will be debating politics. We won’t conform at Wycombe. There was a time when players like Graeme Le Saux would have the mickey ripped out of them for reading The Guardian. We are a hundred million miles away from that.
He rescued Wycombe from League Two relegation and won two promotions to the Championship
‘My job has been to bring them together when they might never have come across each other in our society. That diversity is a huge advantage. You can solve more problems when you have a bigger spectrum of problem solving.
‘Some people worry about going into a room full of people they don’t know. They shrink. That’s not me. I buzz off seeing how much energy I can give these people. It is a challenge for me. How can I influence these people? That’s the challenge as a manager too. If my players can show off and be the centre of attention, that’s enough for me. I don’t need to be the centre of attention. I have stayed being me. I found out who I am quite early on in my life and I stuck to it and I’m happy with it.’
Ainsworth’s Wycombe are known for playing attractive football in the lower leagues and he says his philosophy is winning as many accolades and trophies as possible – highlighting Jose Mourinho as an influence in his coaching career. Ainsworth went up against the Portuguese boss when Wycombe played Spurs in the FA Cup in 2021.
‘Some people fear Mourinho and so they don’t like him rather than embracing that fear and learning from it and looking into it. I have amazing respect for him. He gets some stick sometimes. People don’t like things that are different and he is different because he did not play at a high level so he has had to earn his respect. People fear things that are different but one of my big things is not conforming. I respect that.
Ainsworth refuses to budge on his unique style and wants to manage in his own way
‘I love Man City’s style, I love Wycombe’s style and the old Wimbledon style. There is no right or wrong way to win games. I win games. That is my job. To win games. He is great with the psychology of the game and people fear that a little bit.
‘When people say they are not a big fan of his, that’s what Jose Mourinho wants — for people to concentrate on him and then his team can get on with what they do. You might say he is a raging narcissist. No. Everything is geared towards winning football games and everyone has their own way. I have my own way. At times, we have all to put on some facade.
‘There are moments you convince yourself you have to make your boys do something. It is a tough act and I take my hat off to Mourinho. The bottom line is what is our job as football managers? It is to win football games. That is what it is down to. If you are winning games, everyone loves you.
‘Football is not about winning by any means necessary. You don’t cheat. You want to be able to sleep at night. But if you see a weakness or you want to be able to exploit something, then you do it. I hate the phrase about a manager playing football “in the right way”. I don’t even know what that means. Surely the right way is to win games?’
Plenty have written off Wycombe across the years but they have remained competitive, with the club surviving a number of relegation scares and moving up and down across the football pyramid in recent years. They are curently sixth in League One.
Ainsworth said the key to ensuring his players constantly overcome the odds and keep fighting is belief that they will ‘find a way’. That didn’t serve them well in their 2020-21 Championship season, where they were relegated straight back to League One, but the coach says his players always ‘up for the fight’.
Jose Mourinho – who he went up again in 2021 when Wycombe played Tottenham in the FA Cup – is a big influence in his career
‘There was no bigger test than Wycombe in the Championship with the constraints we have and the budget we had. It’s like sticking my orange Mustang on a Formula One grid and saying “keep up”. It’s not going to happen but you have to find a way.’
Ainsworth has talked in depth about his ambitions and being in a Premier League dugout one day is still on the agenda – but more important to him is being himself and be happy in a job he loves. QPR is a big job but it’s a club close to his heart and for now he is happy to keep challenging himself every day.
‘To manage in the Premier League would be a dream but challenge-wise, wow, I am so challenged every day. I love the challenge,’ he added.
‘Am I ambitious? Absolutely. I am ambitious to be happy, to be content, to be myself. Ambition is not always about millions of pounds and silverware and the best of this and the best of that. Ambition is inside you and you can judge what your own success is. I think that is a problem in society. People look at other people and go ‘I want to be that’. And that causes real issues.
‘Just be you and you is good enough. Your ambition should just be to be happy. I wake up every morning with a smile because I am a football manager and I get to go in every day and inspire boys to try and win a game on a Saturday and we have done OK and I have played football since I was 16 and I get to sing in a band. I’ll take that.’
Ainsworth has always dreamt of managing at a higher level – but what is more important to him is being happy and continuing to challenge himself
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