| Ainsworth ranked last on The Second Tier Podcast. 19:04 - Jul 13 with 10459 views | Kodika |
The Second Tier podcast (which I listen to regularly) have just posted a new episode today where they look at all the 24 managers in the Championship and rank them in order of how much they would want them in charge of their football club.
Today's episode covers the managers from 13 to 24th.
You may be surprised (or not!) to find out that they rank our Gareth at bottom of the pile.
I f you want to listen, he is the first they talk about. And they are not very complimentary!
I normally find the two guy's who host the podcast, Ryan Dilks and Justin Peach as very knowledgeable and fair.
Would be interested to hear others thoughts after they have listened. It will only take up 10 minutes of your time to listen to the Gareth section. |  | | |  |
| Ainsworth ranked last on The Second Tier Podcast. on 09:49 - Jul 14 with 1889 views | hubble |
Going back to the OP, I hate to say it, but it's hard to disagree with a lot of what they say about GA. Sure, you can argue that their 'QPR were mid-table when he was appointed' analysis is inaccurate, given that we were already mid-plummet, but unlike most of us, they're free of bias in regard to Rangers, and what they say about GA's tactical limitations definitely ring true to me. We were extremely lucky to survive last season and the reason for that was down to the way the team played and the tactical decisions GA made.
Like all of you, I hope they're proved wrong - but it can't be a coincidence that he's their last choice. |  |
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| Ainsworth ranked last on The Second Tier Podcast. on 10:01 - Jul 14 with 1820 views | SAPilgrim |
I think that’s a fair way of looking at it. But i’d say i think Ainsworth leant into the style of play last season as a strategy rather than as a fallback. He didn’t have any time to bed in a complex style of play and his brief was a three word ‘don’t get relegated’. Sam Jolliffe on twitter was pointing out that our signings so far and interest in Wing don’t point towards a massively hoofball style (
Begovic is arguably one but also just a solid experienced keeper not gonna be on huge wages). |  | | |
| Ainsworth ranked last on The Second Tier Podcast. on 10:04 - Jul 14 with 1794 views | SAPilgrim |
Then again, maybe i’m just putting too much faith in him because i like him and i really want it to go well. | | | |
| Ainsworth ranked last on The Second Tier Podcast. on 10:04 - Jul 14 with 1793 views | Blue_Castello |
| Ainsworth ranked last on The Second Tier Podcast. on 19:46 - Jul 13 by SAPilgrim |
To be honest I stopped listening once they said he took a ‘mid table’ side and nearly got it relegated. To anyone paying attention that was a team clearly already on a significant decline. I think there’s plenty of criticism and worries to be had about him but the second tier lads are better entertainment than critical masterminds |
Agreed I won't waste my time with people who haven't got a Scooby Doo, Ainsworth took over a team in free fall, we had relegation written all over us, the team spirit was poor and the athleticism of the players equally so, in a number of games we were just given the run a round, chasing shadows.
That was started by Beale because even though we had a great start we then hit a brick wall, probably a lot to do with him deserting the ship, they bring in Critchley for more of the same but he couldn't get the players motivated or working as a team, so that's what Ainsworth inherited a team in terminal decline with no motivation, it was a small miracle that he turned it around, OK he reverted to the direct tactics and primarily protecting the box but it eventually sunk in and got us two results against Burnley and Stoke.
Next season is a whole new ball game, there's no question he is one of if not the most inexperienced at Championship level but a lot will hinge on what players he is given to try and get the results, if he doesn't get the right players then the pundits will be proved correct, from my perspective Begovic is a big step in the right direction, a few more solid signings will give us a chance of survival. [Post edited 14 Jul 2023 10:10]
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| Ainsworth ranked last on The Second Tier Podcast. on 10:17 - Jul 14 with 1750 views | hubble |
| Ainsworth ranked last on The Second Tier Podcast. on 10:01 - Jul 14 by SAPilgrim |
I think that’s a fair way of looking at it. But i’d say i think Ainsworth leant into the style of play last season as a strategy rather than as a fallback. He didn’t have any time to bed in a complex style of play and his brief was a three word ‘don’t get relegated’. Sam Jolliffe on twitter was pointing out that our signings so far and interest in Wing don’t point towards a massively hoofball style (
Begovic is arguably one but also just a solid experienced keeper not gonna be on huge wages). |
Fair enough, those are all reasonable points and we did indeed avoid relegation under GA. But most of those games the team was a shambles. Of course I hope Gaz succeeds, I want to hope that he does, I'm just finding it very difficult! | |
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| Ainsworth ranked last on The Second Tier Podcast. on 10:27 - Jul 14 with 1705 views | robith |
| Ainsworth ranked last on The Second Tier Podcast. on 01:17 - Jul 14 by Northernr |
I have to say, Jack apart, I find the Athletic over here mostly very poor and have unsubscribed (and if I'm not the audience for long form written football journalism in the UK who is?). A ridiculously high proportion of their content is four lads who were Forest fans as boys because of Clough now going to work and having a wnk onto their keyboard everyday - 6,000 words on why Brennan Johnson is the Star Boy, by his dad and some cnt that saw him play U13s once. And you want my money for that? Nah. |
Same, I got a free couple of month's sub through work and barely touched it after a week |  | | |
| Ainsworth ranked last on The Second Tier Podcast. on 10:35 - Jul 14 with 1669 views | cheesy |
| Ainsworth ranked last on The Second Tier Podcast. on 21:25 - Jul 13 by Northernr |
Gab Sutton is the one to listen to if you want a general EFL content. The research that guy does is insane. He's in touch constantly on DMs asking what's going on, what happened at the weekend, what we think of this youth teamer, and he's doing it for every club too. His work rate and dedication is out of this world. He's doing a deep dive on every club over the summer and they're all well worth a listen.
NotTheTop20... I don't know, nice lads, but they've basically mastered the art of succinctly and politely saying "oooh, Reading, big financial problems there, probably going to struggle" without swearing or speaking for more than 30 seconds. So they're now on Sky, ITV etc as experts. Compared to the meatheads Sky and ITV usually put on the EFL I guess they are. They'e launched a substack with some long form written stuff and some great contributors so maybe I'll give that a go.
Second Tier... it just feels like they're saying provocative things about stuff they haven't read into very much, which they can then clip for socials and get a whole load of pile on to drive engagement.
This will make me sound arrogant but I know the journalists and podcasts that send me messages asking about an incident, game, appointment, signing before they write about, to try and sound out what the feeling on the ground is before they start prophesising about it. Jack Pitt Brooke at The Athletic for instance, whenever he has a QPR interview, in touch asking what he should ask. Gab Sutton the same. I'm always a bit suspicious of people who purport to cover QPR and offer an opinion on them who not only don't get in touch with the big fan accounts, but also don't even follow then on socials. |
I tend to leave all the efl podcasts alone. I sometimes look at other clubs fan sites and feel jealous of the content they do. I appriciate all the fantastic work you do Clive and understand that you are a busy man, but I would love your patreon to be a bit more busy. We need a better podcast for our club and I think there is a huge window there. Would be willing to pay more for more content. [Post edited 14 Jul 2023 10:39]
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| Ainsworth ranked last on The Second Tier Podcast. on 10:41 - Jul 14 with 1652 views | robith |
| Ainsworth ranked last on The Second Tier Podcast. on 10:01 - Jul 14 by SAPilgrim |
I think that’s a fair way of looking at it. But i’d say i think Ainsworth leant into the style of play last season as a strategy rather than as a fallback. He didn’t have any time to bed in a complex style of play and his brief was a three word ‘don’t get relegated’. Sam Jolliffe on twitter was pointing out that our signings so far and interest in Wing don’t point towards a massively hoofball style (
Begovic is arguably one but also just a solid experienced keeper not gonna be on huge wages). |
I agree. I don't think we're ever going to play like Barcelona, but at the risk of sounding like someone talking about their gap year, the way we were set up last season was nothing like I saw at the few Wycombe games I went to. They played 433, 451 in defence and they pressed like demons. He was playing 442, super low block, I think it was a needs must, and we'll see more of that 433 this season.
I also think, based purely off my own intuition here, that both he and Critchley were taken aback by the perhaps toxic nature of our dressing room. It ate Critchley whole after he tried to call it out, and Ainsworth learned from that. People would mug him for seeming overly optimistic in public, but it was smart based on what happened to his predecessor. The reason being whilst it dissolved Critchley, I think Ainsworth is determined to change the culture here or die trying. And for the talk of bad football, under Warburton we had a massive collapse every season, the players' reactions to Beale leaving were unacceptable and for me personally - if we survive and some standards have been reset, players willing to die for the Hoops? That's a W for me | | | |
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| Ainsworth ranked last on The Second Tier Podcast. on 10:42 - Jul 14 with 1652 views | HanwellHoopster |
I'm still pretty open minded on Ainsworth. I won't judge him based on last season as he had to work with a team in freefall as others have eloquently described. His record with a very resource constrained Wycombe is nothing to sniff at.
More than anything, he appears to be a leader of men, rather than 'just' or 'even' a technical coach. And if you ask me what's been wrong with QPR squads in the last few years, it's been more the mental fragility than any technical limitations, although of course those technical limitations are still there to some extent, as with all teams. Given that, appointing someone who builds team spirit first, and the rest after, might not be such a bad idea...
Looking forward to him hopefully proving the doubters wrong. | | | |
| Ainsworth ranked last on The Second Tier Podcast. on 11:00 - Jul 14 with 1593 views | slmrstid |
I wonder what made them rank Enzo Maresca, with a grand total of 14 managerial games to his record, above Gareth Ainsworth, other than the fact that Maresca has pots of money to play with so even if he is a crap manager, he can just blast everyone else out of the water with players the rest of us can't afford... |  | | |
| Ainsworth ranked last on The Second Tier Podcast. on 11:51 - Jul 14 with 1469 views | 1JD |
Good pod cast, thanks for sharing. Ive mentioned before I’ve seen GAs Wycombe side over 50 times in the flesh over the years as I was born in the area. Those who have seen Wycombe on the off chance must have lucked out. The style of football over those years has been extremely direct, long ball. It got marginally better in their promotion year.
If you read the Wycombe messageboard the fans themselves are hoping for a change in style to something more attractive under Matt Bloomfield. Over the years, Ainsworth himself has made no apologies for his direct football style in the bucks free press, including a dislike and disdain for anything that constitutes passing football. It’s his choice, and preference, regardless of budgets. I’m not going to find the articles or quotes. But they are all out there. He also credits John Beck as his major influence - the original long ball proponent.
Wishful thinking that GA is going to change is exactly that. As JFH would say, it is what it is! [Post edited 14 Jul 2023 11:53]
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| Ainsworth ranked last on The Second Tier Podcast. on 13:35 - Jul 14 with 1324 views | TGRRRSSS |
How about the fact they had no idea about the Critchley disaster reign and their total lack of knowledge of it? |  | | |
| Ainsworth ranked last on The Second Tier Podcast. on 16:32 - Jul 14 with 1163 views | golborne |
| Ainsworth ranked last on The Second Tier Podcast. on 11:51 - Jul 14 by 1JD |
Good pod cast, thanks for sharing. Ive mentioned before I’ve seen GAs Wycombe side over 50 times in the flesh over the years as I was born in the area. Those who have seen Wycombe on the off chance must have lucked out. The style of football over those years has been extremely direct, long ball. It got marginally better in their promotion year.
If you read the Wycombe messageboard the fans themselves are hoping for a change in style to something more attractive under Matt Bloomfield. Over the years, Ainsworth himself has made no apologies for his direct football style in the bucks free press, including a dislike and disdain for anything that constitutes passing football. It’s his choice, and preference, regardless of budgets. I’m not going to find the articles or quotes. But they are all out there. He also credits John Beck as his major influence - the original long ball proponent.
Wishful thinking that GA is going to change is exactly that. As JFH would say, it is what it is! [Post edited 14 Jul 2023 11:53]
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Maybe a good season for those who openly say they don't give a shit about being entertained, so long as their team are winning every week. We'll see.
For those who feel differently, the one glimmer of fresh hope might be Richards, providing he's not constantly watching it go over his head. Saw enough in his cameos and glimpses from training that he's a really great prospect.
The other glimmer, as it stands, is that Richards, Ilias and Willock are likely to still be here in Oct should he balls it completely, so anybody else coming in won't be left with mostly knuckle draggers | | | |
| Ainsworth ranked last on The Second Tier Podcast. on 16:46 - Jul 14 with 1132 views | Hooping_Mad |
I worry poor Gab will in later years having filled his vast memory with useless information about useless reserve players he never really needed to research will lead to some interesting cheese based nightmares.
I still wake in night screaming Giles Phillips will save us, he never did [Post edited 14 Jul 2023 20:26]
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, so I nixed the idea of a post match ‘on the whistle’ type vox pop podcast for the patreon - sure Clive cursing after the 6-1 at Blackpool would be ‘fun’ but what exactly can you say about that goalless draw at Cardiff last season? 
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