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Gareth Ainsworth wants to restore Hearts as Scotland's third force as he applies for next manager job

Gareth Ainsworth wants the Hearts job
-Credit: (Image: Getty)


Gareth Ainsworth insists he's the man to restore Hearts as Scotland's third force.

The ex-QPR and Wycombe Wanderers manager has been out of work since losing his job at Loftus Road last October. Ainsworth won only five of his 28 games in charge of the EFL Championship side. He lasted just six months in the hotseat, a far cry from more than a decade at the helm of Wycombe, where he earned legendary status by guiding the club from League Two to England's second tier.

Now, after 12 months out of the game, Ainsworth is itching to get back in the dugout and has applied to replace Steven Naismith at Tynecastle.

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He said: "Football has to be about having a sense of belonging and I look at Hearts and think it's a club which is a bit lost. The big factors in what appeals to me about Hearts are both the size of the club and what it's been through.

"Looking at all of that and seeing a glimpse of what they achieved with their qualification for Europe, you see a club crying out for an identity. I want to bring that back in droves. They need to get back to having that identity as being the third biggest club in Scotland.

"For Hearts, winning the league is finishing third and I want to make that the norm, not once per decade. It's a club which has been used as a stepping stone for far too long. I was guilty of that when I was at Wycombe as I took Uche Ikpeazu from Hearts .

"But I don't want that. I want to bring in players who are keen to achieve great things at Hearts."