Ollie Westbury sat down to discuss Shrewsbury Town's appointment of Gareth Ainsworth.
The former Wycombe and QPR boss has been named as the successor to Paul Hurst, who was sacked following Town's FA Cup exit to Salford.
Salop sit bottom of the league with just eight points - and Ainsworth now has the task of turning around their dismal campaign.
Ollie discusses why the appointment is impressive and how Salop couldn't have brought in a better new head coach.
The former Wycombe and QPR boss has been named as the successor to Paul Hurst, who was sacked following Town's FA Cup exit to Salford.
Salop sit bottom of the league with just eight points - and Ainsworth now has the task of turning around their dismal campaign.
Ollie discusses why the appointment is impressive and how Salop couldn't have brought in a better new head coach.
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SportsTranscript
00:00Welcome to ShropshireStar.com. My name is Jonny Drury. I'm here alongside Oli Westbury.
00:12After Shrewsbury Town have announced their new head coach, as revealed by Oli and the
00:17Star last week, Gareth Hainsworth was one of the top candidates for the job. He has
00:22been appointed as new head coach. We don't know how long his contract is currently. Oli,
00:29this appointment was expected, but if you look at it on the face of it, for a side who
00:34are where Shrewsbury are, it's quite a coup, really. He's got a big task on his hands,
00:40but someone who's won promotions from League Two, League One, took Wickham to the Championship,
00:45you know, if they were going to get a top candidate, they've probably got the top one,
00:49haven't they?
00:50Yeah, I mean, absolutely. I think this is the most exciting appointment that there's
00:55probably been since I've been in this job as Shrewsbury Town reporter. It feels as if
01:00we're properly punching above our weight. The manager that was in, I say we, but Shrewsbury
01:05punching above the weight, you know, a manager that was, you know, last manager in the Championship,
01:10okay, probably didn't end the way that he would have liked it. But, you know, somebody
01:14that's got a distinguished EFL managerial CV being, you know, in charge of a big club.
01:22He's taken a club like Wickham from League Two all the way up to the Championship and
01:27done a pretty incredible job. I was going through that a couple of days ago. So, yeah,
01:32it's really, really fascinating to kind of see his career. I must admit, I've just been
01:38watching his interview and I've seen him say himself, like, that he'd heard that there
01:42were a few eyebrows raised, you know, I'm in that camp, you know. I thought to myself,
01:48would Gareth Ainsworth want to be the Shrewsbury job or would he be holding out for something,
01:53you know, near the higher end of League One? Because he is, I mean, it's a brilliant appointment
01:59that managed to convince him. And it feels like it could be the start of something because
02:05it's been doom and gloom at Shrewsbury Town for far too long now. It's been a tough, tough
02:10gig following the team and with the results. But, you know, he's mentioned it himself,
02:16you know, this could be the catalyst, the spark for some change. So let's hope and keep
02:20our fingers crossed that Gareth Ainsworth and his assistant, Richard Dobson, you know,
02:25can really bring that to the crowd meadow.
02:28Yeah, I think he's right in saying it would raise a few eyebrows and you could say potentially
02:33it's quite a risk, you know, for him, you know, reputation wise really. But he sounds
02:40that he's, you know, I've just listened to sort of 10 minutes of a 14 minute long interview
02:44and he sounds that he's very much invested. And if you listen to the players that have
02:50played for him and done well for him, he, you know, he's going to get every single last
02:55drop out of these Shrewsbury players and he's going to need to.
02:58Yeah, he seems like the kind of really positive character, somebody who's, you know, and you
03:03can see, you can sense that from the way he kind of does his interview. So, yeah, I mean,
03:09it's a brilliant appointment. It's one, you know, it's one that's really exciting. And
03:14the town are going to need that, you know, they're bottom of the league one table, you
03:17know, the results have been going against them. It's a little poor result last night
03:20against Worsley in the EFL trophy. So, you know, Shrews are going to need kind of all
03:25that kind of motivation and positivity that they can because, you know, from results and
03:29the way that things have been going here, there ain't a lot of that around at the moment.
03:33So they're going to need, you know, they're going to need, you know, everything they can
03:37to try and get themselves up and about for when it comes to the visit of Blues, you know,
03:41in a week's time.
03:43You know, he has got a big task on his hands and just in terms of, you know, last night,
03:49obviously at Walsall, it looked, you know, I've heard some people comment that, you know,
03:52Shrewsby looked like they're kind of down tools and it just wasn't great at all. But
03:58it sounds like he will have been watching that, you know, relishing the challenge of
04:03turning it round. I suppose it's a clean slate for all players now when he comes in, you
04:08know, the baptism of fire against Birmingham in a week or so, or a week and a half's time.
04:12But, you know, everyone's got a clean slate now.
04:16And I suppose the season starts from now for Shrewsby, really.
04:19Yeah, it's kind of a bit of a restart.
04:20It's an opportunity for everybody to hit reset, for everybody to have the chance to start
04:25again, to go again.
04:26You know, everybody will be kind of assessed and evaluated and his job will be to improve
04:33the players that he's got in the building because there's going to be nothing he can do
04:35until January anyway, in terms of bringing extra players in.
04:38So, you know, the job between now and then is to stay in touch with the pack.
04:42Isn't there until that they can kind of do some wheeling and dealing in the January window?
04:45If that at all is possible, I'm sure that'll be on the list of questions when we actually
04:49get the opportunity to speak to Gareth Ainsworth.
04:53But for sure, you know, it is a chance for a reset.
04:57It is a chance for those players who have perhaps been out of favour and have not quite
05:01had the game time that they wanted to be able to put a case forward for themselves.
05:05And, you know, you would have thought that they would have been doing that last night
05:08knowing that there was a very big opportunity, there was a huge chance that the potential
05:12new manager would have been watching that game.
05:14Yet it didn't feel like it by the way that they played in that second half.
05:19But anyway, that's gone now.
05:20There's no point dwelling on the past.
05:22You know, they've got, you know, just over a week on the training field and on the training
05:27pitch that he can kind of get his thoughts across, get his views across to the players
05:32and, you know, see if they can make some progress ahead of, you know, a massive game against
05:35Birmingham City, which as you mentioned yourself is by no means an easy game at all.