Wally meets Nathan Jones: After seven managers in three years, a turnover that would make Watford blush, Jones and Charlton could be the ideal fit for an underachieving club.
Nathan Jones, who was thrown overboard by Southampton after only 95 days, is taking the scenic path back to the Premier League.
The “skinny, rat-faced Welsh boy” from the Rhondda valley, as he announced himself at St Mary’s, is back in management at Charlton Athletic, two levels down the ladder, and doing well.
Can you help me, Rhondda? The Addicks were slipping into the League One crocodile pit when Jones discovered the handbrake. And if he was hurt by his short stint with the Saints, he doesn’t show it.
After seven managers in three years, a turnover that would make Watford blush, Charlton may have finally found the man to solve one of English football’s most enduring mysteries: What the hell are they doing down there?
“I’m a born-again Christian and I believe everything is God’s will, so I’m able to process what happened at Southampton and accept it,” said Jones, who is now 50 years old.
“I fought so hard to get to the Premier League, even though it didn’t go as planned.
“But instead of drawing a line you have to evaluate, reflect and above all learn from it so that when my next opportunity comes in the Premier League – hopefully, in a realistic time frame, that will be with Charlton – I will know the pitfalls.
“I enjoyed the experience of working with the players at Southampton. There were outside factors that were very difficult to manage but it was all a learning curve and I’m a better manager for it.
“I had a year at Stoke which wasn’t successful, but Luton got a better manager who came back and now Charlton have got a better manager.
“It’s not like you park it, forget about it and draw a line under it. Southampton came for me, I believed I was going to be there a long time and I wouldn’t have left Luton, where we were on a wonderful trajectory, unless I thought it was the right move in my career.”
The early signs are promising. Five points from three demanding games against the top three kept Charlton away from the quicksand, and the Valley was rocking at last week’s draw with leaders Portsmouth.
But Jones warned: “Nobody in this building will be allowed to think we’ve cracked it – so far we’ve only given ourselves a platform and shown we can compete with the top sides in this division.
“This is a wonderful football club that has been under-achieving and has been through a bit of turmoil, but I believe the decision-makers here are now aligned and that will help to add stability.
“Then it’s up to us to build a team and a squad that will do Charlton proud and generate a positive atmosphere, and then we can start taking this club forward again.”
As ever, the key to Charlton’s survival will be their enviable knack of unearthing home-grown talent, with 19-year-olds Dan Kanu and Karoy Anderson leading the harvest’s latest crop.
Jones has a proven track record building pathways to first team football and the former Luton boss said; “This club has always put a big emphasis on developing young players so that talent and opportunity meet, and I believe that was one of the reasons why they came for me.
“At Luton, we gave 18 players their League debuts, and now I’m working with Paul Hart, whose coaching record speaks for itself.
“Everyone thinks about Manchester United’s Class of ’92, but there was a wonderful academy at Leeds that rivaled it, as well as one at Nottingham Forest, and Paul’s work was behind both.
“The conveyor belt here is one of the best for producing home-grown talent, and you only have to look at some of the names – Joe Gomez, Ezri Konsa, Ademola Lookman in recent times, Lee Bowyer, and Scott Parker going back a bit further – and we’ve got four in our first team squad now.”
This weekend’s excursion to Sixfields, where Northampton’s half-completed east stand competes with Schubert’s unfinished symphony for longevity in the awaiting tray, will be another test of the conveyor belt’s pulley power.
But Jones, who was a highly renowned Under-21 coach at the club from 2012 to 2013, is only emboldened by the familiarity.
“It’s exactly the same place I left,” he told me. “In general, I don’t accept jobs based on clubs; I take them based on the individuals that work there, and Charlton has fantastic people.
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