Gillingham appoint Gareth Ainsworth as Shrewsbury Town express ‘dismay’ and ‘shock’ in an open letter issued on Tuesday evening.
The Gills have brought in Shrewsbury Town head coach Gareth Ainsworth to replace John Coleman, but Salop are gutted to have lost him having recently been close to getting him to sign a new contract.
Gillingham currently sit 19th in League Two and only brought in Coleman in January on a deal until the end of the season.
An open letter from the Chairman regarding Gareth Ainsworth and Richard Dobson.
— Shrewsbury Town FC (@shrewsburytown) March 25, 2025
SHREWSBURY STATEMENT:
I’m writing this open letter because I understand there is a lot of anger, worry and concern among supporters.
As you will be aware from media reports this morning – and much to our shock and dismay – Gareth Ainsworth has informed us he wishes to leave the club after receiving an offer from a League Two club.
First of all, I can confirm that the club has done absolutely everything in its power to persuade Gareth to stay.
Failing that, we also asked if he would continue until the end of the season.
Gareth’s contract contained a termination clause which the League Two club in question initially refused to meet.
We made clear from that point we would not allow him to leave and that we wanted him to honour the remainder of his contract.
But Gareth made clear he wanted to leave immediately, despite acknowledging the position the club are in at this moment in time.
At a board meeting yesterday afternoon, the League Two club had still refused to meet the termination clause.
But at 4.41pm yesterday, STFC received confirmation that the club had agreed to pay the full termination fee for both Gareth Ainsworth and Richard Dobson.
This took any further negotiations out of our hands – and Gareth and Richard once again expressed their desire to leave immediately.
A few weeks ago, I sat down with Gareth and offered him a two-year contract extension regardless of our divisional status because, as a club, we were excited about the future with him at the helm.
Gareth seemed pleased we made that offer and everyone was looking forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship.
While we only received the final paperwork from the League Two club this afternoon, I would like to – as much as possible – reassure fans that we are already in discussion with suitable candidates for the head coach role.
We are working really hard to have someone in place for Saturday.
Once again, I fully understand why our supporters are feeling frustrated, confused and concerned.
I can assure you, as a supporter myself, the current situation hurts me more than I can ever express.
And with the club still in an exclusivity agreement regarding a potential takeover, we will keep you updated with events as they happen.
The club can confirm that John Coleman and Jimmy Bell have today left the club.#Gills
— Gillingham FC (@TheGillsFC) March 25, 2025
GILLINGHAM STATEMENT:
The club can confirm that John Coleman and Jimmy Bell have today left the club.
John and Jimmy arrived at MEMS Priestfield Stadium in January as interim manager and assistant manager, and oversaw the First Team whilst the Club developed a vision and plan for the future. Both John and Jimmy have worked hard to improve performances and leave with our gratitude and respect for the work they have done during the club’s transitional period.
John Coleman said: “Jimmy and I arrived at Gillingham at a difficult time, knowing we’d be here for a short time, but hoping we could turnaround performances and work rate. We believe we achieved this, particularly in recent weeks. Whilst the results haven’t reflected the performances given at times, we are pleased to leave the team more stable and having improved both in attitude and application.
“We believe this has been vital in repairing the relationship between the team and the fans. We’ve really enjoyed working at Gillingham and wish everyone the very best moving forward.”
The Football Club is delighted to announce the appointment of Gareth Ainsworth as our new First-Team Manager.
The 51-year-old has signed an agreement which runs until the end of the 2026/27 season. Gareth is joined at MEMS Priestfield Stadium by his long-term assistant, Richard Dobson.
They take charge with immediate effect and will be in the dugout for Saturday’s Sky Bet League 2 fixture at Harrogate Town.
After making over 650 appearances during his playing career, Ainsworth progressed into management and guided Wycombe from League Two to the Championship and subsequently managed Queens Park Rangers and Shrewsbury Town. He departs Shropshire to take the helm at Priestfield, with a compensation package having been agreed with Shrewsbury.
Gareth will speak to the club’s media team for the first time on Wednesday before being unveiled to the local and national press on Thursday. Brad Galinson will be providing his thoughts via the club website tomorrow.
We officially welcome Gareth and Richard to the club, and we wish them every success.
Fans reacted as Gillingham appoint Gareth Ainsworth as Shrewsbury express ‘dismay’ and ‘shock’ in an open letter issued…
@SalopianJoe: Something about this just doesn’t add up. Why did he just decide all of a sudden he was leaving? Especially after just recently moving into a house in Shrewsbury.
@PieCarlton: Poor from Ainsworth, he could have waited until the end of the season, Gills have nothing to play for. If he’ll leave a Lge 1 Club for a lowly Lge 2 one, I wouldn’t be overly confident as a Gills fan that Ainsworth will be around long.
@LumleyLumleyp27: Gills fan in peace. A lot Gills fans ain’t happy about this! What way to treat John Coleman and Jimmy Bell. Decent guys genuine and down to earth. You could do a whole lot worse by appointing these two! ! Proper football men. Hearts on their sleeves. Good luck for the future 
@callumfinazzi: why include a release clause for, just asking for trouble…
@Woaakk: Why’s he offering two year contracts to GA, when’s he (RW) apparently not gonna be here. Surely that’s down to the new owner/s
@boxingg4: RIP Shrewsbury town 1886-2025.
@salopfr: Why would Roland be offering a 2 year extension if he’s expecting new owners to come in to make that decision?! Get out of OUR club!!!
@mozzerstfc: Okay time to move on. Please, please, please and for heavens sake do not allow Moore to be involved in employing a new head coach. Situation is bad enough without Moore making it worse.
@z0eshi: Really soured my view on Ainsworth, I understand there’s probably more to this such as the takeover probably falling through, likely reason, if not then there was no good enough excuse for it, Ainsworth has properly stabbed us in the back here
@mbonell84: Difficult to know what to believe but if the takeover is not the reason he has left then Gareth Ainsworth is the biggest charlatan going. Every 5 minutes claiming to be committed to and have a love of Shrewsbury. Despite a brief improvement we have been as bad as before him.
@ShrewsburyJohn1: That must be the longest “exclusivity period” in contractual. History, I’ve been involved in a few commercial takeovers and yep… this one is a belter
@Simonparry44: I long gave up believing a single word that emanates from the Chairman
@nickjames_1: Don’t appoint anyone. Let the new owners appoint their own man in the summer, unless…
@JRGills2000: Lots of people being overly negative and others thinking we’re gonna win the league. I am going to stay neutral but will be getting behind him all the way for how ever long he’ll last UTG 
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