Gareth Ainsworth makes Hearts next manager pitch as he tells Tynecastle chiefs what he'll bring back to Gorgie

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Gareth Ainsworth last night insisted he's ready help Hearts reclaim their identity as Scotland's third force and put the soul and some rock and roll back into Gorgie.The 51-year-old Englishman has tied his colours to the Tynecastle managerial post after Steven Naismith's dismissal last week by applying for a vacancy which he believes is one of the most attractive in British football.

Ainsworth led Wycombe Wanderers from League Two to the English Championship on one of the lowest budgets during an acclaimed 11-year spell before being dismissed last year as boss of Queens Park Rangers and is ready to get back into the dugout after an eight months sabbatical.He told Record Sport: "Football has to be about having a sense of belonging and I look at Hearts now and I think it's a club which is a bit lost.

The big factors in what appeals to be about Hearts are both the size of the club and what it has been through."Looking at all of that and then seeing a glimpse of what has and can be achieved with their qualification for Europe a few years ago you see a club which is now crying out for an identity and I want to bring that back in droves You look back at the administration period and the progress since then, 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 that's what I want to achieve, not once in a decade but to make it the norm, season on season.

I want to bring people along with me, it's a club which has been used as a stepping stone by players for far too long. I was guilty of that when I was in charge at Wycombe as I took Uche Ikpeazu from Hearts, but it's a club who recruit players who almost settle for Hearts as a stationing