QPR and Wycombe Wanderers former manager sets music goals

Gareth Ainsworth was sacked by Queens Park Rangers in October

Football manager Gareth Ainsworth has said he will focus on his music if his football career stalls.

In July the former Queens Park Rangers (QPR) and Wycombe Wanderers boss released his debut album with his band Cold Blooded Hearts.

"I'm a musician first, that's what I always say to people," he said.

The currently out-of-work manager said he had been spending his time trying to improve his guitar skills as he is "a very average guitarist".

"Somebody told me, when you've got nothing, you've got to have some focus; that focus for me is getting better at the guitar," he added.

The 50-year-old said he still attends and watches football games but "definitely, the focus now is as much on music as well".

"Football is so good to me and I've loved it throughout my career but you never know," he said.

At Wycombe Wanderers, the ex-midfielder guided the club from League Two to a place in the Championship.

The guitarist and singer is the frontman for Cold Blooded Hearts, who formed in 2015 and released a 10-track album in July.

In 2019 the band celebrated Ainsworth becoming the EFL's longest-serving manager by performing The Wanderer at the club's Adams Park stadium.

QPR sacked the head coach in October after a run of nine Championship games without a win and said music had helped him.

"You put a Motorhead song on and life doesn't seem so important when that's playing in the background", he said.

Gareth Ainsworth began managing Wycombe Wanderers in 2012 and left in 2023

Ainsworth, who recently returned from playing shows in Norway, said the album had been "doing OK" in America.

He said there were plans being made "in the background" to play shows on the other side of the Atlantic.

"I've been a football player, a football manager and then I could be touring with a rock band in America," he laughed.

On his hopes to score some stateside shows, he said: "If that could come off, wow!"