While the younger generation may only know Gareth Ainsworth as a manager, he was a sensational player who had to work incredibly hard to reach the top.
Bouncing Back
Born in Blackburn, he represented the Lancashire side in his youth before being released in the cruellest fashion on his 18th birthday. It was a setback that thousands of players face while trying to make it in the game, but it requires the utmost motivation to come back from. Dropping into the Conference with Northwich Victoria gave him that chance to bounce back, and a second opportunity in the professional game arrived at Preston. That was a chance he took, revealed exclusively to The Real EFL:
“I think I’m a real good story of development. At 18/19, you get told you’re not going to be a footballer, and at 25/26, you’re playing in the Premier League. I started really coming into my own at 20 years old. I think I played about 100 games for Preston North End, but I never really showed everyone what I could do.
“It’s a great story for people to never give up hope and faith and somebody who believed in me, John [Beck], gave me that confidence on the pitch that I could go and beat anyone and do anything. Scoring the amount of goals I did from the wing in such a small space of time was because of John.
“The way he put confidence in me and taught me little things about scoring at the back post, I think that’s where I became more of a thinking footballer rather than just this guy who ran up and down the wing. He puts you in positions that would be successful. He talks about the POMO position (Position Of Maximum Opportunity), on a corner being at the back stick and I kept that with me forever.”
Managerial Influence
Highlighted above is the influence that John Beck had on Gareth Ainsworth. At the first three clubs that Beck managed, he signed the young midfielder at each, them being Cambridge, Preston and Lincoln.
At such a crucial stage of his career, the 70-year-old help to guide the youngster after suffering a that early setback. But it wasn’t just Beck that had an influence on his career. There were plenty of managers that he played under that shaped both his playing and managerial career.
“Becky had a certain way, it was crazy playing for him sometimes, but he was a really good motivator. He made you believe you could do things that you didn’t think you were capable of, and he would believe in you.
“I think you take a bit from every manager, Ian Holloway, Paulo Sousa, Joe Kinnear, and John Gregory, all great managers along the way. I think every single one of them has made me who I am. But then I have to believe me being who I am is the reason I got the job. I’d say my style of play wasn’t influenced too much by Becky, he was very different to me. But the way that I connect with the boys, man management, and team spirit have come with me from Becky.
“We had a team of people who had been released and were told they were never going to make it. He made that into a real force in League Two and we eventually got promoted, although he didn’t get the credit for that. At Preston, although there wasn’t a great deal of success, we made the Play-Off Final and he got the town absolutely buzzing around football again. That was a real big thing from John, about the community as much as the football.”
