Delaney backs Ainsworth
Damien Delaney, the QPR and Republic of Ireland full back, has backed stand-in manager Gareth Ainsworth to pick up the pieces at Loftus Road after Iain Dowie was controversially sacked.
Delaney has revealed that he was aware Dowie was unhappy in his final days at the club, but says he was not privy to the exact reasons for his dismissal.
Rumours of discord between the club’s owners and the former Northern Ireland international have done the rounds over the last few weeks, with suggestions that there were attempts to influence team selection from the boardroom.
“Obviously there were whisperings that the manager was unhappy and the owners were a bit unhappy as well, but you can’t do much about it,” Delaney told setantasports.com.
“We didn’t know what was going on really. Obviously you hear the odd whispers and things like that but nobody actually knew for certain what was happening.
“The owners have made a decision and Gazza is now in charge for how long nobody knows.”
The former Hull City favourite admits the timing of Dowie’s departure - just 12 league games into the season – was not ideal but insists that it is now up to the players to salvage something from the season.
“It is I suppose , but I think everyone that has been in football knows what it’s like, knows that that’s football and that you have to get on with it,” he added.
“But unfortunately football doesn’t wait for anyone so as soon as someone gets sacked another one comes in and it’s up to the players to keep going.”
Ainsworth, who made over 140 appearances with the R’s over five years, has been handed the manager’s role on an interim basis, and Delaney feels his standing among the players makes him the ideal man to steady things at the club.
“Last year when I first joined in January, Gazza was still a player,” he said.
“Then he went into coaching at the start of this season. He’s brilliant, Gazza. He’s real honest, hard-working – a guy who just asks for commitment from everyone really. That’s all he asks for.
“That’s the type of player he was as well. He wasn’t the most gifted player in the world but you knew you got it every week, which was work-rate and commitment. And he is just the same as a manager.”
Delaney says he is in the dark as to who will replace Dowie in the long-term, but admits Ainsworth is a definite contender after helping Rangers to four points from his first two games in charge before last weekend’s 2-0 defeat to Ipswich.
“Nobody knows really. I think he is in charge on a temporary basis. Whether or not we are looking to get somebody else in or whether or not Gareth will be left in charge, I don’t know,” he said.
“Obviously we have had a few very, very good results under him and I’m sure he will throw his hat in the ring for it. Who knows, he might get it.”
