Sport Football
12 1GS Saturday September 12 2020 | the times
Two club — but only just. They
survived relegation on the final day of
the 2013-14 season after winning away
to Torquay United. “I wasn’t the
greatest manager in the world then,”
Ainsworth says. “I was probably
making decisions to keep the status
quo, thinking as Gaz the footballer.
That day at Torquay will always be
the greatest day of my managerial
career as a lesson and achievement.
“It was a great night but soon after
that there was a big reset of what I
wanted to be: either stay in this job
and do it the way it should be done or
get out now because you’ve been so
lucky to get away with that.”
Since then, the ascent has beenrapid. Ainsworth’s character has been
key. “If you asked me my biggest
strength, I would love to say I see the
game better than anyone, I’m more
tactically astute, but I’d be lying,” he
says. “My biggest strengths are
getting players organised, trusting my
staff, galvanising the boys, getting
them to achieve possibly more than
they think they can.”
They are now Championship
players, and the longest-serving
manager in English football will not
be changing for anyone. The hair is
here to stay. “Every time someone
says that to me, I probably put off
going to the hairdressers another
month longer,” he says. “The image is
nice to have. It’s taken a long time to
come out. They probably think it’s all
energy and rock’n’roll, and I want
them to think that because they’ll
underestimate us.”manager type,” he says. “What’s the
manager type? Who is that?
Somebody conforms so everyone else
does. I’d rather be me.
“They’ll never take the music out of
me. I’ve been singing since I was six
with my mum. She’d be devastated if I
gave it up. It helps me switch off and,
in a way, even though I’m expending
energy, tomorrow morning I’ll be that
bit fresher because I’m not thinking
about football.”
True to his word, the next morning
Ainsworth is found with a whistle
around his neck, offering words of
encouragement to players during a
small five-a-side game at the club’s
humble training ground in the
country lanes of Buckinghamshire.
Ainsworth’s orange Mustang is
parked next to the two-storey sky
blue container that houses the squad
throughout the week. Limited space
means that a marquee is also required
to help with social distancing.
A bass guitar sits in the corner of
Ainsworth’s office, while a
commemorative gold record of The
Wanderer hangs on a wall. It was
presented by the club this year and
the staff say Ainsworth looked even
happier then than he did at Wembley.
Ainsworth’s two worlds often
combine. At the team Christmas
lunch last year, Alex Samuel, the
club’s forward, was performing a carol
that transitioned into The Wanderer.
“We both rocked it out,” Ainsworth
says. “The boys loved it. We went to
France about three years ago, went
into a bar and it was a karaoke bar. I
had no hesitation. I was up there
singing Brown Sugar. Then Bayo
Akinfenwa, who had just signed that
season, went up there and did a
rendition of Hotel California, which
will go down in history because he’d
never heard the song before. He
busked it the whole way.”
When Akinfenwa, the forward,
joined Wycombe, they were a Leagueto hit your notes and not singing
through your throat. She can still rock
a mic now. I’m a fraction of that but
she gets a kick out of seeing me. She
always tells me to keep the rock and
roll alive, don’t lose it.
“At 14 or 15 , when Guns N’ Roses
released Appetite for Destruction it
just blew me
away. The
northwest was
mad for the
rave and acid
scene. I stayed
true to rock and
was looked at as
a bit weird
because I would
dress in black
T-shirts, Dr
Martens, and
my rock’n’roll
gear. It built up
a bit of
resilience in being
myself, which is
important nowadays.”
Even on the touchline,
Ainsworth is advised to change.
“I’ve been told by some pretty
high-profile managers to cut
your hair and look theIt has just gone 7pm at Sanctuary
Studios in Watford as Gareth
Ainsworth strides through the double
doors in a low-cut black T-shirt,
skintight blue jeans with a studded
leather belt and a pair of Converse
trainers. He flicks through messages
about potential transfers on his
iPhone, before leaving it on a speaker
and climbing on stage.
“Rock’n’roll!” roars Ainsworth, 47,
performing a hand-horn towards
Louis “Chalkie” Harrison behind the
drums. Ainsworth adjusts his
shoulder-length hair, approaches the
microphone, and for the next three
hours Wycombe Wanderers are put to
one side as their manager morphs
into the frontman of The Cold
Blooded Hearts.
This side of Ainsworth is no secret.
When Wycombe defied expectation
in July by being promoted to the
Championship for the first time in the
club’s 133-year history, via the play-
offs, Ainsworth, who has been in
charge since 2012, stood on the
touchline at Wembley Stadium
wearing red snakeskin shoes.
During lockdown, he led an online
quiz for Queens Park Rangers, one of
ten clubs for whom he played in
midfield, wearing full Gene Simmons
make-up, having released a cover of
The Wanderer in December with his
band.
Ainsworth’s genre is far from Dion’s
finger-snapping 1961 hit, though, and
tonight The Times has been invited
into studio six for an audience with
Ainsworth. As well as a cover of The
Animals’ We Gotta Get Outta Of This
Place, the band rehearse some of their
own material, from the toe-tapping
Tell Me to Love’s Lost, written by
Ainsworth and lead guitarist and
long-time friend Lee Sargent.
“Being able to switch off is really
important in management,”
Ainsworth says sipping from a bottle
of water. “We talk about all the
intensity of it, and then we talk about
all these mental health problems in
the world, and I’m thinking you’ve
answered your own question.”
Music provides Ainsworth’s escape.
“I’ve had nothing to think about for
the last two hours other than what
lyrics I’ve got to sing next. That’s
what’s in my head tonight, and I
couldn’t do without it. This lot help
me in a big way.”
Every Monday, Ainsworth meets
with Lee, “Chalkie” and Ron
Campbell, the bass guitarist. Most of
the time is spent running through
chords and discussing lyrics, but
tonight they are putting on a show.
Ainsworth’s most recent
performance was in March at a
charity fundraiser in Wokingham
where he lives, and as the band strike
up he’s lost in the music. Ainsworth
jumps around the stage, stamps his
feet to the beat and belts out the
lyrics written through lockdown.
“When you’re singing on stage and
you have moments with your
musicians where you get something
right and you can feel that energy
together it’s incredible,” he says. “You
get it in football as well. But on stage
is brilliant. I’ve always said if
somebody offered me Lionel Messi’s
life or Mick Jagger’s life, the decision
would be easy for me: I’d be frontman
of the Rolling Stones every time.”
Nights like this sum up Ainsworth.
The man nicknamed Wild Thing does
not conform to the stereotype of a
football manager. Ainsworth and his
brother Liam were raised
through the 1970s in a house
where music was always on.
Their mother, Christine,
had been a pop-soul singer
on the circuit in the north
before meeting their
father, Bill, while
performing. “Dad
was a groupie,”
Ainsworth says.
Sunday
afternoons would
involve a rotation of
records on the
turntable, from Neil
Diamond and Abba to
Jimi Hendrix and The
Who. “Mum used to
teach us to sing,” he
says. “Breathing
through the diaphragm‘Messi or Jagger? I’d be Jagger any day’
Wycombe manager
Gareth Ainsworth tells
Tom Roddy how music
provides him with an
escape from football
Wycombe’s rise under Ainsworth
Since Gareth Ainsworth took charge in September 2012, Wycombe Wanderers
have risen from the bottom of League Two to the Championship
40th50th60th70th80th90th
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 20202014
Escaped
relegation
on goal
difference2015
Lost in League
Two play-offs^2018
Automatic promotion
to League One2020
Won League
One play-offsPosition in English pyramidEvery time someone
tells me to get my hair
cut I probably delay it
for another monthEmotional rescue: Ainsworth says his band, The Cold Blooded Hearts, offer him an important diversion from the pressures and intensity of football managementAinsworth celebrates
winning the play-offsIAN TUTTLE FOR THE TIMESWatch the Wycombe
manager and his rock
band in action at
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/sportOnline