An Insight into Ainsworth's 8 months

[SheepRanger]

Sorry Sheep but he just didn't do it for us. If you aggregate his spell then over a season we would have got around 31 points.

If you put him at the right club with the right group of players at the right time I am sure he could do well. Nobody lasts 10 years in a job in the modern game which he managed with Wycombe. Hopefully his move to Gillingham will work out and he can do similarly well there.

Outside of that the last three seasons have been extremes. In Warburton's last season great start to season and awful second half. Similar last season. This season we were 24th in form table followed by 1st and then dropping back again. I know all teams have ups and downs but was rather hoping we might get to the stage of being a little more settled!

Sorry, I think we're discussing two separate things.

I'm referring to him seeing us over the line in 22/23 and the 3W and 2D helped us get there from the slide that started during Beale's tenure. The return was poor but the squad was on its #### before he got there. He got some sort of a tune out of us to maintain our championship status. I also remember some criminal individual player errors that cost us a huge amount of points during that run in.

Of course, when you aggregate over both seasons it's an awful look and he had to go.

But I think he was always a cheap short term appointment to get some kind of spirit into the squad for 22/23 survival. They gave him a chance the following season and he fell short.

But I will always be grateful to him for getting the points it did for keeping us up that season and I don't think that was done despite his efforts.

[topperharley]

Every single one of our managers that i can recall have had nose dives.

The difference with GA was that the approach and playing style had no future for us, it was all a bit yeah man lets have a crack.

Works lower down but not when looking higher up the leagues. He'll always be loved at the club.

I really hope Marti stays on because we've for far too long chopped and changed coaches without developing the squad with them, rather than by them as Redknapp did. He's for sure good enough at this level and if given time i think at the very least we'll keep as solid mid/upper mid table championship team, and hopefully build a sustainable footing for next few years. I don't think that was ever possible under GA.

[Abseits]

Aside from his last season when he got the hump and downed tools Warburton could point to Covid in interruptions and protocols as being disruptive.

Didn't McClaren start well and tail off too. Beale had nosedived too. Having an up and down season seems a trait of all our managers.

Cant really judge this season yet but it would already seem likely the final verdict will be "mixed - up & down - a tale of two halves".....

[FurtiveFox]

Sorry Sheep but he just didn't do it for us. If you aggregate his spell then over a season we would have got around 31 points.

If you put him at the right club with the right group of players at the right time I am sure he could do well. Nobody lasts 10 years in a job in the modern game which he managed with Wycombe. Hopefully his move to Gillingham will work out and he can do similarly well there.

Outside of that the last three seasons have been extremes. In Warburton's last season great start to season and awful second half. Similar last season. This season we were 24th in form table followed by 1st and then dropping back again. I know all teams have ups and downs but was rather hoping we might get to the stage of being a little more settled!

[SheepRanger]

I supported him longer than the vast majority on here but whilst he is a great guy and worked incredibly hard his record was dire - 5-4-19. He did nothing to arrest our decline and showed nothing to suggest that would change at the start of last season. Wrong man at wrong club at wrong time.

Last season we would have finished 22nd with that points total and that was after the head start old Snakie gave us. If we used GA's stats we would have finished bottom.

Of course the results weren't great, we had a great start under Beale but the rot started before he left with his last five games yielding 1D 4L. The squad was fresh and eager at the start of his tenure but the strength in depth wasn't there and he couldn't leave quick enough in the end. Critchley didn't do much better and was sacked. We can praise and blame managers as long as we like but the core issue was a poor squad after the Board did the three FFP money under Warburton's last season. To a point we're just coming through those restrictions.

Ainsworth won't go down as one of the greats of QPR managers, but as you say, he got us five wins and four draws.......if he was as bad as you suggest we wouldn't have got that. He did his bit under very difficult circumstances of being the third manager that season!!! We could have easily been relegated under Beale and Critchley, so to isolate Ainsworth is unfair in my opinion. Fair enough if you think differently.

[FurtiveFox]

So basically his contribution was ZERO during his whole time with us?? He did f..all?

He achieved what was asked of him by keeping us up in his first season. To suggest he had no involvement in that achievement is disrespectful in my opinion.

He may not have been the best QPR manager, but in part, we are still in this league because he got the team over the line.

I supported him longer than the vast majority on here but whilst he is a great guy and worked incredibly hard his record was dire - 5-4-19. He did nothing to arrest our decline and showed nothing to suggest that would change at the start of last season. Wrong man at wrong club at wrong time.

Last season we would have finished 22nd with that points total and that was after the head start old Snakie gave us. If we used GA's stats we would have finished bottom.

[WestcountryRanger]

I'm just reading that Ainsworth is jumping ship from Shrewsbury to take over at Gillingham...
I hope it works out for him as he can't really afford for it to go badly.

https://www.londonworld.com/sport/football/qpr/ex-qpr-boss-management-switch-5050023

[Abseits]

So basically his contribution was ZERO during his whole time with us?? He did f..all?

He achieved what was asked of him by keeping us up in his first season. To suggest he had no involvement in that achievement is disrespectful in my opinion.

He may not have been the best QPR manager, but in part, we are still in this league because he got the team over the line.

Ainsworth kept us up and then a disastrous run over opening 16 or so games of last season and got sacked.

Cifuentes kept us up and then a disastrous run over opening 16 or so games of this season (actually had less points than Ainsworth had scraped together) saw Cifuenres awarded an extended contract.

Above is 100% factual - NOT subjective.

My subjective view is Ainsworth's style is basic, hardworking and not the prettiest to watch and Cifuentes's style is fiddly, technical and mostly boring.

Clearly the owners buy into Marti's approach and presumably feel he'll take the club forwards next season.

[SheepRanger]

My take on it is he was brought in firstly to give team a lift to see us to safety. In the end we achieved that but almost in spite of GA rather than because of him.

So basically his contribution was ZERO during his whole time with us?? He did f..all?

He achieved what was asked of him by keeping us up in his first season. To suggest he had no involvement in that achievement is disrespectful in my opinion.

He may not have been the best QPR manager, but in part, we are still in this league because he got the team over the line.

[FurtiveFox]

At every club you will have some players who want away because things have not worked out. Nothing unusual in that.

Agree GA came into a very difficult situation but afraid saw nothing over his tenure to suggest he was right man for the job. My take on it is he was brought in firstly to give team a lift to see us to safety. In the end we achieved that but almost in spite of GA rather than because of him. Secondly he had demonstrated he could work well with little to no budget in L1 and hope would have been he would be able to translate that to the Championship. It was no surprise to us fans there was no budget to play with so can't see it would have been any surprise to him. The start of the next season we were awful and had he stayed I suspect we would be in L1 now.

Also at the start of last season we were for 2-3 months one of the top teams so it was possible to get that squad playing reasonably well. Neither he or Critchley got to grips with it to arrest the decline. Last season Marti turned it around with largely the same group of players GA had at his disposal.

Real shame given GA's personality and status with the club but he just wasn't the right man. Sometimes things don't work out. Look at Emery at Villa, now seen as one of top managers in Prem yet flopped at Arsenal.

[Abseits]

Doing an even worse job at Shrewsbury.

They've beaten Wrexham and Birmingham under his stewardship. Must infuriate him, the owners, the fans, everyone, when a team can put in a shift/performance against stiff opposition but melt when they play plodders.

[SheepRanger]

Very underrated manager and I hope he will go on to manage England one day.

[davieqpr]

Doing an even worse job at Shrewsbury.

[72bus]

Would of loved it to work out for Gareth he's a decent fella , always gave 100% on the pitch.
But nice guys don't usually cut it as good managers

[Abseits]

Whilst I agree that we had some complete ar5eholes in the dressing room such as Roberts, laird and willock who were lazy and thought they were doing us a favour by being here, it was the absolute dross that ainsworth and dobson served up that got them the sack.

Long ball, no flair, 10 men behind the ball hoping for a 1 nil win if we were lucky mentality that they came up with. Comparing us to wycombe and having a small club outlook made the fans turn on them. But hit and hope tactics are LR won't be tolerated esp when you saw what MC did with the same squad.

I think you have to look at last season's squad. I've randomly looked at a September matchday squad when Wild Thing's team played Boro off the park at their gaff and won 2-0. Gotta be honest, it don't look massively different to today's matchday squad... the main players who've now gone from that squad are:

Willock
Armstrong
Kakay
Dozzell
Begavic

There were some younger fringe players who are not here today too:

Duke-McKenna
Larkech
Kelman
EDB

I think the point Im trying to make is this.... I cant see all the of the above were "problematic" or part of some corrosive faction? IF there was some sort of schism back then I'd suggest that there are still some of them about the gaff. Maybe Marti smoothed things over and everyone's a happy bunny today though.