Nice Profile of QPR (Acting) Manager Gareth Ainsworth

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South Wales Echo/Mark Bloom - Gareth Ainsworth out to shake up former club Cardiff City
THE ‘Wild Thing’ has become sensible.
Gareth Ainsworth, a supporters’ favourite at Cardiff City and Queens Park Rangers, has entered the new world called football management at Loftus Road.
And he is loving every minute of it – even if none of his players are speaking to him!
Gone are the nights out with the boys, so too the mickey-taking and the camaraderie among the lads.
But Ainsworth, who used be the lead vocal in a rock band called Dog Chewed the
Handle, won’t worry as long as he takes three points off his former club Cardiff on Saturday.
“The lads don’t talk to me much these days. I don’t know whether it is out of respect or fear,” laughed the approachable 35-year old.
“They still call me ‘Gaz’, but the conversations are more guarded and shorter than they used to be. But that’s fine.
“I’m also not allowed on a lads’ night out any more, but that’s fine as well, I know what it’s all about.”
Ainsworth, it is said, has got one of the hardest jobs in football, managing moneybags Rangers.
The combined wealth of flamboyant Italian owner Flavio Briatore, Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone and steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal makes Rangers the richest club in the world.
But progress has been slow and manager Iain Dowie was sacked last month just a handful of games into the job.
Step forward Ainsworth. He might be inexperienced and warming the manager’s hot seat for perhaps just a brief time, but he has impressed the wildly ambitious Briatore.
“You give a chance to people who deserve it,” said Briatore, who has won the F1 world motor racing championship with his Renault team.
“Gareth deserves a chance. I gave Michael Schumacher a chance in Formula One, so it’s ridiculous we need someone with experience.”
As far as Ainsworth is concerned,worrying about being selected for the next game is history.
“As a footballer you worry about yourself, now I have 26 or 27 players to worry about, keep happy and organise training schedules for,” he said.
“I’m the one carrying the training cones under the arm as the players make their way to the pitches.
“I’m working longer hours too, there’s no shooting off any more after training.
“But I have to say I’m loving every moment of it. I have gone through an array of emotions – won, lost and drawn.
"But, boy is it exciting when it all comes together. It’s very intense, 24/7.
“When you’re a player you go home and put on MTV or play some computer game.
“Now, when I eventually do get home, I’m channel-hopping football matches, news stories, anything to do with football.”
Ainsworth might have only made nine appearances for City at the tail end of the 2002-03 season. But City were marching towards play-off final glory at the Millennium Stadium, ironically against QPR, and Ainsworth’s enthusiasm quickly won over Bluebirds’ fans.
“Cardiff supporters will know I gave everything when I played there and that is how I approach this job – I can’t do it any other way,” he said. “I’m QPR’s longest-serving player, so this club is dear to me in every way.” WalesonLine