Meet the new manager of Shrewsbury Town with an unexpected talent
Gareth Ainsworth tells ITV News Central's Sport Correspondent Dan Salisbury-Jones that being a frontman in a band is just like "being a frontman in the dugout".
In Gareth Ainsworth, Shrewsbury Town have found a man who is not your typical football manager.He is also the lead singer of a band called 'The Cold Blooded Hearts' and it is that he tells me which will suffer most from his move to Shropshire."Being a frontman in a band is very similar, you wouldn't believe to being a frontman in the dug out on the side there. The energy you can get at a gig, it's a feeling, it's a feel-good thing."If you'd not heard of Gareth before you might be understandably alarmed by the club appointing a rock star but be assured Gareth is best known for his work in sport.
He guided Wycombe Wanderers to the Championship, his last job was at QPR, he kept them in the same division but was sacked after a poor start to last season. He says the music helps him cope with the stress of football.
He said: "Football management is an incredibly stressful job. You know, you have to be at the top of your game my whole career and I've always had the music on the side to go to and just to distract me."Monday evenings used to be a lot about what chord is next or what lyric is next, never mind what team we're playing and that might have to be put aside."The band is probably the the big sufferers in me moving up to the Midlands. But for me now, my music is here, and I want to see it on the pitch from these boys."At Shrewsbury Town he has a serious job on his hands. The team are bottom of League One and facing relegation unless he can turn things around."I want to see us just believing that we can beat anybody in this league because it's 11 against 11. There's no reason that Shrewsbury Town can't pick points up against anyone in League One."His first game is against Birmingham City next week. Salopians will be proudly singing his name if he wins that.
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