I would like, if I may, to share with you a somewhat personal story. Back in March 2016, Wycombe Wanderers defeated Stevenage 1-0 in a League Two match at Adams Park.

It was a deserved if unremarkable victory, won courtesy of a well-taken goal by Luke O’Nien. Yet that evening, I received a voicemail. ‘Hi Phil – It’s Gareth Ainsworth here, I’ll try you again shortly’. While I was not a stranger to the Wycombe manager, quite why he was calling me on a Saturday evening was something of a mystery. As it would transpire when he did call me back, I had written a piece for the matchday programme that day about my time as a Wycombe fan and one of the answers had struck a chord with Ainsworth. So much so that he chose to read it to the team just before kick-off and he was calling to say I needed to take some of the credit for the afternoon’s victory.

As proud and flattered as I was to have been told by the club manager that I was in part responsible for a victory of a club I have supported since I was 7, I do not share this tale for any attempt at a personal boast – before now the story has remained solely within the knowledge of just a few close family and friends. The reason for my sharing of the story is by way of an example of the man that Gareth Ainsworth is, exactly ten years after he first arrived at Adams Park. He didn’t have to get my phone number from the office staff. He didn’t have to phone me repeatedly that evening to pass on his message. He didn’t even have to apologise for interrupting my Saturday evening. But he did.

The story of Ainsworth at Wycombe is well documented. Loan player to permanent signing to caretaker player-manager to manager, he struggled in his first two years before lifting Wycombe Wanderers from near the base of League Two to near the summit of League One all on a shoestring budget. More on that later.

As a player, Ainsworth is a cult hero at just about every club he played for. His passion and drive endeared him to fans everywhere and it was the same at Wycombe. It wasn’t just an act – when asked what the club meant to him, he replied ‘This club means everything to me, just like every club I’ve played for. I know that when I wear the shirt of any club, I’m fulfilling a dream of all that club’s paying fans.’ It helped that he had talent as a player, but his working-class upbringing (he described himself as a ‘latch-key’ kid) taught him the value of hard work that resonated with fans.

When he first took charge he issued a rallying cry to the supporters which included the line ‘Everyone’s going to be proud when we do turn things around and we’re all going to want to say we were a part of that’. A positive outlook that would reverberate throughout his time.

After his first win in charge he fronted a concert alongside local rock band The Subrosa Five at Adams Park to raise money for the club’s community project trip to Kenya in the summer and a cult manager was born.

Later on that season a group of fans walked from Adams Park to Oxford United for the game in order to raise money for the club. Ainsworth made it his business to be at the ground at an un-godly hour to see them off before using their efforts as an inspiration to the team. Wycombe won 1-0.

Yet the following campaign, 2013-14, was a different story. After a reasonable start, Ainsworth struggled to bridge the gap from player to manager while his tactical naivety and a club that was feeling the strain financially saw the team freefall. The feeling amongst the fans, yours truly included, was that he was not the man for the job. Ainsworth was still liked as a person – his passion and commitment was unquestionable – but it was time for him to go. Yet the aforementioned financial strain was becoming apparent as a bonus payment to the players was missed and Ainsworth had his own wages deferred. Ainsworth kept this to himself in the face of much personal criticism – it only came out in the past two years. Others may have used it, understandably, as a defence mechanism to quieten the naysayers.

After the penultimate defeat that season put Wycombe deep in the mire, Ainsworth spoke of ‘fairytales’ and the belief that if Wycombe could win at Torquay, someone else would slip up. The only man with a positive attitude was the one man who really needed one. His attitude at the sponsors dinner four days before Torquay seeped into those of us who were there. We even joked that he could play for our supporter’s club team and he joked that, if we stayed up, he would do just that. We laughed and forgot about his seemingly jovial, off the cuff comment – a year later, at that self-same event, he approached our table and asked, ‘When are we playing this match then?’

And when Ainsworth turned up at the training ground shortly after the miracle of Torquay it’s reported that there were no nets for the goals. He enquired about purchasing them, was told there was no cash and so spent his own overdue wages on some. This sort of attitude hasn’t changed as the pressure on money has eased – he and his staff retrieve lost footballs at the end of each session, on the basis that every penny counts and to blasé with anything that can have an effect on such things is to show a lack of respect to the volunteers, fans, staff and share-holders who work so hard for every penny.

Tales such as these are one of the reasons that budget has been a buzzword of many of Ainsworth’s press conferences over the years, regularly referring to the fact that Wycombe were paupers compared to other sides in the division. Some fans of opposition clubs have become tired of the repetitive narrative, citing it as an excuse or a tiresome plead for Wycombe’s over achievements. Yet it goes deeper than that, for Ainsworth is a man who lived and breathed and experienced the effect of the proverbial shoestring upon which he was operating.

In spite of those constraints, promotion was achieved in 2018 on a memorable day at Chesterfield. As the final whistle blew, the fans streamed onto the pitch and the squad players did likewise, whereas Ainsworth turned to the director’s box and pumped his fists, a raw emotion etched onto his face, bursting with emotion and pride.

 

The fans chanted his name, but he was eager to point out his assistant Richard Dobson to get his moment in the sun. For there is a humility to Ainsworth – the limelight is not something he will bask in without pointing out the efforts of the many hard-working people involved in any achievement. ‘We’ve got Gareth Ainsworth…And Dobbo’s number two…’ are the words to a chant that can be heard at Adams Park and while Dobson’s incredible work is worthy of recognition, but his inclusion in the song is doubtlessly down to Ainsworth’s eagerness to highlight his work.

The night following the Chesterfield game I asked him if he would put himself in the squad for the final game of the season (he was still registered as a player). ‘Maybe’ came his slightly inebriated reply. He did no such thing, for such a stunt would have detracted from the efforts of the playing squad and meant one player would have missed out on a reception from the packed-out crowd.

It would, of course, be wrong to say that Ainsworth is universally loved. The football under him at times has not always been pretty and it hasn’t always been effective with time-wasting, feigning injuries and long-ball tactics rolling up into an accusation of ‘anti-football’ from some opposition fans, players and managers. The reputation is exaggerated but the accusations not entirely unfounded, and this has resulted in some people attributing negative personal characteristics onto him based on their aesthetic opinion of the way his team has, at times, played the beautiful game, rather than any personal interactions with the man himself.

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Yet it’s hard to find anyone who has actually met or actually knows Ainsworth to speak ill of him. One Football Focus recently he mentioned his strength as a manager is his relationship with people – from coaching staff, to board members, to owners, to fans. Jason McCarthy, Matt Ingram, Fred Onyedinma and Paris Cowan-Hall are but four of the players to have returned to play for Ainsworth having previously left while Adebayo Akinfenwa’s three and half years (and counting) is the longest time the iconic striker has spent at any of his many clubs. When Onyedinma first arrived on loan from Millwall, Ainsworth expressed concern about a young player in a new environment far from home. His care for future players that may be in a similar situation resulted in him setting up a ‘life academy’ with Chairman Andrew Howard, to teach young players how to live in the real world. Management goes beyond tactics and motivation.

With the success has come approaches from other clubs and the club have been respectful of Ainsworth’s attitude and achievements, allowing him to reportedly speak with Lincoln City, Sunderland, Millwall and QPR. The latter of these was in the summer and, with the emotional ties Ainsworth has to Loftus Road, seemed a likely move. With his budget being cut and no sign of investment, he had taken Wycombe as far as he could at that time. When Rangers went in another direction there was much relief at Adams Park but an odd sense of sadness for Ainsworth who it was felt deserved a chance at a higher level.

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As it stands though, he might just get that chance in the Championship with his preferred choice of Wycombe Wanderers. He is rightly proud of what he has achieved and endeared himself to the fans like nobody could have expected. After the final regular home league match of the 2014-15 season, he and Howard invited a few regular fans into the boardroom to thank them for their vocal support throughout the campaign. On the aforementioned promotion evening, he was spotted wandering up one of High Wycombe’s many hills in the early hours with a Wycombe scarf around his neck, a man who was not just in touch with the fans but was behaving like one in the hour of glory.

Whether that evening will remain his finest hour at Wycombe remains to be seen but it’s hard to see how Ainsworth won’t manage in the Championship, and potentially beyond, at least at some point in the coming years. The story is still being written, and it just might be a tale in which one of the good guys wins.

words Phil Slatter, D3D4 Wycombe Wanderers correspondent