I am going to say it!! Yes I am, Nathan Jones......................

Six-a-bag-of-nuts · August 20

I think we are getting into semantics here.
He wasn't using width, the attacking play was guileless, clueless, ineffective, frustrating and was driving fans away in droves.
The change to using width was pivotal, fundamental, the very definition of a volte face.
I think the reason I am irritated by the term 'small tweak', even if it really was that, is the reductive way it almost absolves Jones of any responsibility for what went before, like the insufferable dogshit was "almost there" and the change was so inconsequential he could have done it anytime if he wanted.
It had been going on for weeks, the fans were leaving and we were heading downwards.

NabySarr · August 20

Jones had even tried Small on the right away at Huddersfield, and it didn’t work. Which is why he probably tried every possible team combination while things were going wrong, before going back to Small on the right and landing on the right set up

fenaddick · August 20

Six-a-bag-of-nuts said:

I think we are getting into semantics here.
He wasn't using width, the attacking play was guileless, clueless, ineffective, frustrating and was driving fans away in droves.
The change to using width was pivotal, fundamental, the very definition of a volte face.
I think the reason I am irritated by the term 'small tweak', even if it really was that, is the reductive way it almost absolves Jones of any responsibility for what went before, like the insufferable dogshit was "almost there" and the change was so inconsequential he could have done it anytime if he wanted.
It had been going on for weeks, the fans were leaving and we were heading downwards.

I take your point but it's also worth remembering that he kept saying he'd been asking players to play differently to how they actually did. He needed to find a solution to help them to recreate what they did at SL to actual match scenarios. What we saw on the pitch was definitely a big change but my suspicion (mainly based on how quickly it suddenly clicked) is that actually the addition of more width was a relatively minor thing within the system he coached. It created a bit more space in the middle and that made a huge difference. A small change can have major effects, that's the whole thinking behind the butterfly effect theory.

Callumcafc · August 20

Six-a-bag-of-nuts said:

I think we are getting into semantics here.
He wasn't using width, the attacking play was guileless, clueless, ineffective, frustrating and was driving fans away in droves.
The change to using width was pivotal, fundamental, the very definition of a volte face.
I think the reason I am irritated by the term 'small tweak', even if it really was that, is the reductive way it almost absolves Jones of any responsibility for what went before, like the insufferable dogshit was "almost there" and the change was so inconsequential he could have done it anytime if he wanted.
It had been going on for weeks, the fans were leaving and we were heading downwards.

We started the season with the exact same formation we ended with. I feel like this is a lot less black and white than you remember it being.

We started the season set up with Ramsay right and Edwards/Small left providing width as the wing backs - it was producing results until we lost three on the bounce against Blackpool, Stevenage and Bristol Rovers.

Off the back of that, Jones adjusted and went to a much narrower formation against Birmingham (4-4-2 diamond) which actually got us an unexpected win against the soon-to-be run away champions, followed by going unbeaten against Wrexham, Barnsley and Stockport using the same narrow diamond midfield, relying on Edwards and Edmonds-Green as full backs to give us any width (which wasn't much).

After those results, the limitations of the narrow formation became apparent with losses to Exeter and Crawley so Jones reverted back to the wing backs formation he started with - he tweaked some of the players positions, like playing TC up front and Small RWB and it fell into place from there.

Garrymanilow · August 20

Callumcafc said:

Garrymanilow said:

soapboxsam said:

There was definitely "a road to Damascus" moment last season for Nathan Jones when he realised what many of us stated: Use the width of the pitch as we were making it impossible for any cafc attacking players to have any space to operate in. Sometimes it made sense if it was Birmingham at home but to shackle your own side when your playing Crawley etc at home was depressing.

Can anyone who goes home and away remember which game, Small(on the right !) and Edwards became wing backs and we had the Ramsay, Jones and born again Gillesphey as 3 CB's ? TC going out left to receive the ball and suddenly we went from a lame duck to a white swan.

Playing 3 central strikers in a 3 up front was the nadir with Ahadme, Godden and Leaburn tried not once but twice with whoever went wide looking lost.

Seeing Edwards 'fouled' in the box against Watford as the most advanced player shows how much the team has manifested in a more coherent unit with out losing any defensive stability.

Nathan did say it was a learning process and the first 20 odd games were testament to that in 24/25.

Northampton away was the game we put Small on the right and won 5-0. It was still Mitchell in the back 3 that game and for 6 games after that before Ramsay came in for Bristol Rovers and couldn't be shifted afterwards

Yes, that three game stretch post-Crawley of:
Lincoln when we got Jones back in the middle of defence after injury,
Mansfield when we had Godden, TC and Small all starting together for the first time and then
Northampton when we cracked it with Small on the right instead of the left

was IMO the pivotal point in our season.

The Mansfield one was interesting. We had Small at LWB and TC and RWB with Godden and Kanu up front. I think that was the game that Jones realised having a very attacking inverted RWB was the way to go, but Kanu and Godden were too narrow for us to make the most of it. Next match he had TC pulling wide but balanced it with Edwards as a more defensive LWB and we never looked back.

It's interesting looking back at the Mansfield match threads as well. Lots of comments about how poor our summer recruitment was, lots of Jones out comments and even one or two about the possibility of relegation if we lost to Northampton. I'd forgotten just how negative things had got before the Northampton game. A comment from Jones after the game really upset people: 'Us and Birmingham are the best two pressers in the league so we are front-footed and going after teams. We're just not taking chances at the minute. I'm sure that will change. We're not capitalising on the clean sheets at the minute'. Following that match we capitalised on 13 clean sheets on the way to promotion. All managers ask for time and Jones is one of the few who actually got it in spite of poor results, goes to show what can happen.

ShootersHillGuru · August 20

Covered End said:

Six-a-bag-of-nuts said:

Garrymanilow said:

oohaahmortimer said:

I was get him out cos we were utter ponage for a bit but he’d earned some time due to the way he stopped the sinking ship when he came in .
That crap at Bristol rovers was beyond pathetic but he’s massively proved me wrong since and has earned a go at getting us back up even if we get relegated at some point but I know I’d be wanting him out by then cos there’s something about him I really dislike .
Callum is so positive it’s almost madness, which means I’m so scared of him not being 100% keen on Kelman ,I’ve not watched him live yet (kelman not Callum) I’m just getting a Ronnie Schwartz /Nathan Ajose vibe from him

I think Callum's positivity last season was mostly based on the same sort of thing a lot of people felt but were more quiet about, which is that the materials were in place for things to be better, they just hadn't fallen into place yet. We were a long way from Russell Slade managing a team of Andrew Crofts, Kevin Foley and the corpse of Roger Johnson. Last season I just wasn't having that the players we'd signed were rubbish again, we'd signed some really decent players with good experience, things just hadn't come together yet.

Jones kept saying we were really close to being a good team and it understandably drove people insane because we'd seen some incredibly bad performances but in the end all it took was one small tweak - putting pace out wide on the right and allowing TC to push further left - and we were suddenly almost unbeatable. I don't think anyone could be faulted for getting frustrated with Jones making those kinds of comments after losing at home to Crawley but it turned out he and Callum were right. Let's hope he's not right about Kelman because I had similar doubts when he emerged as our main target and they're still there

"One small tweak".
Well, superficially yes it was, a tweak so simple one wonders why it took him 4 months to come up with it.
With hindsight perhaps it is easy to conclude that things were incrementally improving and that tweak was the final piece of the jigsaw.
What we were witnessing on the pitch was 4 months of stubbornly persisting with Plan A to the point where it turned around and smacked him in the mouth.
I do think injuries to key players were a factor but they did not affect the attacking plan, whatever the fcuk that actually was.
In this instance I think small tweak actually equates to complete volte face.
Such that our attacking lynchpin and, so we are told, our most expensive signing of the window was summarily consigned to the dustbin.
For the record, I was not calling for NJ to be sacked.
He had clearly come in and sorted us defensively and one had hoped that we would build on that.
I think those of us that go to games week in and week out were by December having our patience tested to the very limit.
Anybody who retained any optimism at that point was operating from desperate blind faith at best.

Exactly, no way were we successful after a tweak, talk about rewriting history.
We let CBT go and last summer recruited no wingers.
Our remaining winger Tyreece we played further inside.

Many fans on CL including me were crying out for some width a long time before Nathan Jones finally realised his plan would never work and started to put Tyreece wider and brought Small in on the right after trying a number of prior combinations.

Jones got it right eventually and I credit him for that and since then he has worked wonders, but it was a complete change of tactics/volte face as said above.

I think that after that Crawley defeat, Jones was hearing so much criticism from the fans that he himself must have started to fear for his job. Many clubs I think would have pulled the trigger. The changes he eventually made with Small and Campbell were I think forced upon him out of fear and perhaps desperation. Absolutely credit for that but I agree I don’t think that his overall strategy suddenly started to work.

Cafcmunich · August 20

th0rryy said:

Alwaysneil said:

God willing

If we do the basics right...

Be the best version of ourselves

Cafcmunich · August 20

It's all a bit stupid really, however it happened with 2 games to go we could of of gone up automatically! Think that means we have a pretty good manager, probably the best since Curbs, so let's enjoy that we really have our Charlton back

Callumcafc · August 20

Garrymanilow said:

Covered End said:

Six-a-bag-of-nuts said:

Garrymanilow said:

oohaahmortimer said:

I was get him out cos we were utter ponage for a bit but he’d earned some time due to the way he stopped the sinking ship when he came in .
That crap at Bristol rovers was beyond pathetic but he’s massively proved me wrong since and has earned a go at getting us back up even if we get relegated at some point but I know I’d be wanting him out by then cos there’s something about him I really dislike .
Callum is so positive it’s almost madness, which means I’m so scared of him not being 100% keen on Kelman ,I’ve not watched him live yet (kelman not Callum) I’m just getting a Ronnie Schwartz /Nathan Ajose vibe from him

I think Callum's positivity last season was mostly based on the same sort of thing a lot of people felt but were more quiet about, which is that the materials were in place for things to be better, they just hadn't fallen into place yet. We were a long way from Russell Slade managing a team of Andrew Crofts, Kevin Foley and the corpse of Roger Johnson. Last season I just wasn't having that the players we'd signed were rubbish again, we'd signed some really decent players with good experience, things just hadn't come together yet.

Jones kept saying we were really close to being a good team and it understandably drove people insane because we'd seen some incredibly bad performances but in the end all it took was one small tweak - putting pace out wide on the right and allowing TC to push further left - and we were suddenly almost unbeatable. I don't think anyone could be faulted for getting frustrated with Jones making those kinds of comments after losing at home to Crawley but it turned out he and Callum were right. Let's hope he's not right about Kelman because I had similar doubts when he emerged as our main target and they're still there

"One small tweak".
Well, superficially yes it was, a tweak so simple one wonders why it took him 4 months to come up with it.
With hindsight perhaps it is easy to conclude that things were incrementally improving and that tweak was the final piece of the jigsaw.
What we were witnessing on the pitch was 4 months of stubbornly persisting with Plan A to the point where it turned around and smacked him in the mouth.
I do think injuries to key players were a factor but they did not affect the attacking plan, whatever the fcuk that actually was.
In this instance I think small tweak actually equates to complete volte face.
Such that our attacking lynchpin and, so we are told, our most expensive signing of the window was summarily consigned to the dustbin.
For the record, I was not calling for NJ to be sacked.
He had clearly come in and sorted us defensively and one had hoped that we would build on that.
I think those of us that go to games week in and week out were by December having our patience tested to the very limit.
Anybody who retained any optimism at that point was operating from desperate blind faith at best.

Exactly, no way were we successful after a tweak, talk about rewriting history.
We let CBT go and last summer recruited no wingers.
Our remaining winger Tyreece we played further inside.

Many fans on CL including me were crying out for some width a long time before Nathan Jones finally realised his plan would never work and started to put Tyreece wider and brought Small in on the right after trying a number of prior combinations.

Jones got it right eventually and I credit him for that and since then he has worked wonders, but it was a complete change of tactics/volte face as said above.

But the thing is ultimately we kept the basis of our way of playing exactly the same, with one change to its delivery in the form of more width. That's the definition of a tweak. One thing Jones kept saying after games was that he wasn't telling the players to play the way they were. He wasn't telling them to spank aimless long balls up the pitch but they were doing it themselves because they couldn't find the space to play. Adding width improved the performances of all our midfielders, allowed us to control games better which took the pressure off the defence and made us more threatening in attack. It wasn't a complete change of tactics though, we remained a team who aimed to keep things very tight in defence, push the ball up the pitch quickly, win second balls off long passes and press very aggressively high up the pitch. The addition of width unlocked the tactics that were already in place, which is why we were able to suddenly go from god awful to unplayable in the space between two games and then maintain it for the rest of the season. We didn't tear everything up and start over.

This is where I am too.

The team that started the playoff final only had three changes from the team that played up at Wigan in early August. Otherwise, the eight other players remained exactly the same, in exactly the same positions.

A. Mitchell -> Small (with Ramsay moving to his best position of RCB)
Anderson -> Gilbert
Ahadme -> Godden

In each of those you can see three key realisations Jones must’ve had:
- Ahadme isn’t as good as we thought but Godden is better than others thought
- We needed more creativity from the role Anderson was playing
- Getting Ramsay into his best position, next to Jones, probably worked better than anyone expected it to

The plan we finished the season with was roughly the same as the plan we started the season with.

Exiled_Addick · August 20

Looked back at my comments from the time, happy to see I can claim some moral high ground here because I stopped short of actually saying he should be sacked! That being said, I was definitely close to end of my patience with him because the football was dire (even when we won), he was stubbornly sticking to approaches that showed little to no sign of bearing fruit, and his demeanor and attitude was a bit too "eff you" for my liking. I definitely didn't fancy letting him loose on another transfer window as so many of the signings we'd made (but not all, admittedly) on his watch hadn't really settled and looked barely any better than what we'd seen in recent previous seasons from the like of Holden, Appleton etc.

After the Crawley game everything felt just like it felt when Adkins, Appleton, Holden etc. etc. finally met their demise and were sacked. The results were bad. The performances were bad. The atmosphere at the Valley was turning toxic. The manager seemed to have lost all but the last vestiges of any good faith he had with the crowd and players.

In those circumstances I think it was far easier to build a case for sacking him than retaining him. Wanting to retain him required a certain amount of blind faith that it would just somehow get better, at least based on what we could see looking in from outside of the internal operations of the club and the training ground.

Fortunately, the Board held their nerve and showed that faith and, for once, blind faith paid off and it actually got better. Better in such a dramatic way that the turnaround is completely unmatched in my 35+ years of memories avidly following this club.

Now we all understand Nathan and his methods a bit better. Now we can see where things can go once he builds momentum. Now we can all see why and how that could take so long to happen. Now we can all see that "him against the world" and "eff you I'm right" mentality is what drives him. Back then the only evidence of those was from Luton (and I doubt many of us followed his approach there that closely) and he'd only had unsuccessful spells at other clubs. It was easy to think it would fail here as well.

I'm delighted he's proved me and so many of us wrong. Fair play to the guy and now I understand him better I like him a lot. However, I don't feel stupid for having a different opinion at the end of November last year.

Exiled_Addick · August 20

Callumcafc said:

Garrymanilow said:

Covered End said:

Six-a-bag-of-nuts said:

Garrymanilow said:

oohaahmortimer said:

I was get him out cos we were utter ponage for a bit but he’d earned some time due to the way he stopped the sinking ship when he came in .
That crap at Bristol rovers was beyond pathetic but he’s massively proved me wrong since and has earned a go at getting us back up even if we get relegated at some point but I know I’d be wanting him out by then cos there’s something about him I really dislike .
Callum is so positive it’s almost madness, which means I’m so scared of him not being 100% keen on Kelman ,I’ve not watched him live yet (kelman not Callum) I’m just getting a Ronnie Schwartz /Nathan Ajose vibe from him

I think Callum's positivity last season was mostly based on the same sort of thing a lot of people felt but were more quiet about, which is that the materials were in place for things to be better, they just hadn't fallen into place yet. We were a long way from Russell Slade managing a team of Andrew Crofts, Kevin Foley and the corpse of Roger Johnson. Last season I just wasn't having that the players we'd signed were rubbish again, we'd signed some really decent players with good experience, things just hadn't come together yet.

Jones kept saying we were really close to being a good team and it understandably drove people insane because we'd seen some incredibly bad performances but in the end all it took was one small tweak - putting pace out wide on the right and allowing TC to push further left - and we were suddenly almost unbeatable. I don't think anyone could be faulted for getting frustrated with Jones making those kinds of comments after losing at home to Crawley but it turned out he and Callum were right. Let's hope he's not right about Kelman because I had similar doubts when he emerged as our main target and they're still there

"One small tweak".
Well, superficially yes it was, a tweak so simple one wonders why it took him 4 months to come up with it.
With hindsight perhaps it is easy to conclude that things were incrementally improving and that tweak was the final piece of the jigsaw.
What we were witnessing on the pitch was 4 months of stubbornly persisting with Plan A to the point where it turned around and smacked him in the mouth.
I do think injuries to key players were a factor but they did not affect the attacking plan, whatever the fcuk that actually was.
In this instance I think small tweak actually equates to complete volte face.
Such that our attacking lynchpin and, so we are told, our most expensive signing of the window was summarily consigned to the dustbin.
For the record, I was not calling for NJ to be sacked.
He had clearly come in and sorted us defensively and one had hoped that we would build on that.
I think those of us that go to games week in and week out were by December having our patience tested to the very limit.
Anybody who retained any optimism at that point was operating from desperate blind faith at best.

Exactly, no way were we successful after a tweak, talk about rewriting history.
We let CBT go and last summer recruited no wingers.
Our remaining winger Tyreece we played further inside.

Many fans on CL including me were crying out for some width a long time before Nathan Jones finally realised his plan would never work and started to put Tyreece wider and brought Small in on the right after trying a number of prior combinations.

Jones got it right eventually and I credit him for that and since then he has worked wonders, but it was a complete change of tactics/volte face as said above.

But the thing is ultimately we kept the basis of our way of playing exactly the same, with one change to its delivery in the form of more width. That's the definition of a tweak. One thing Jones kept saying after games was that he wasn't telling the players to play the way they were. He wasn't telling them to spank aimless long balls up the pitch but they were doing it themselves because they couldn't find the space to play. Adding width improved the performances of all our midfielders, allowed us to control games better which took the pressure off the defence and made us more threatening in attack. It wasn't a complete change of tactics though, we remained a team who aimed to keep things very tight in defence, push the ball up the pitch quickly, win second balls off long passes and press very aggressively high up the pitch. The addition of width unlocked the tactics that were already in place, which is why we were able to suddenly go from god awful to unplayable in the space between two games and then maintain it for the rest of the season. We didn't tear everything up and start over.

This is where I am too.

The team that started the playoff final only had three changes from the team that played up at Wigan in early August. Otherwise, the eight other players remained exactly the same, in exactly the same positions.

A. Mitchell -> Small (with Ramsay moving to his best position of RCB)
Anderson -> Gilbert
Ahadme -> Godden

In each of those you can see three key realisations Jones must’ve had:
- Ahadme isn’t as good as we thought but Godden is better than others thought
- We needed more creativity from the role Anderson was playing
- Getting Ramsay into his best position, next to Jones, probably worked better than anyone expected it to

The plan we finished the season with was roughly the same as the plan we started the season with.

The middle one is a bit of a Red Herring, though, because, had it not been for an untimely injury, it would most likely have been Berry starting the play-off final. Berry offered less physicality than Anderson and less creativity than Gilbert but did carry more goal threat.

JustFloydRoad · October 22

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5000498/uploads/editor/jk/8m1u9d0ypy71.jpeg

What a difference a year makes!

SheedyCAFC · October 22

Nathan Jones is gonna be linked with other Championship clubs when they start sacking their managers, hope we can get through the whole season with him still in charge

Henry Irving · October 22

SheedyCAFC said:

Nathan Jones is gonna be linked with other Championship clubs when they start sacking their managers, hope we can get through the whole season with him still in charge

I hope/wish he's learnt his lesson from jumping ship to Stoke and Southampton that the grass isn't always greener and that he won't always get the level of board and fan support, let alone player buy in that he's got now.

I can't see him going anywhere but I'm sure he'll be linked to vacancies regardless.

Grapevine49 · October 23

You can defend your positive or negative opinions at the time as you like if you feel it necessary …..if it makes you feel better….ultimately it is simply a matter of perspectives, and different expectations.

I am not sure I need revisit the then debates beyond acknowledging No, the performances and results at that time could not continue indefinitely. Something had to change. That some specifically placed an expectation at seasons beginning for Jones to immediately succeed in the then working environment speaks to a certain point of view. I did and always have taken a more measured approach. Might I suggest the subsequent absence of Scott and Methven and revised role for Rodwell speak to a clarity of direction not previously evident.

Did I anticipate anywhere near the level of progress seen? Most certainly not and nor do I regard Jones as a football “Messiah » but the evidence was always if you appoint Jones to manage then you had better empower him to do just that. For every restriction you place and every concession you demand you risk diminishing his ability to deliver the progress you and he seeks. To be very clear as we are reminded on a weekly basis by opposing fans his brand of football is most certainly not for everybody …….but it works for him.

I found the addition of Hernandez a nice bench mark. With just Anderson and Fullah now meeting EFL Non registration criteria (U21) Mr Jones, surprise, surprise now pretty much has his squad of
- 3 senior keepers
- 22 senior outfield players

all competing for the shirt……and it is starting to show.

Just as importantly having quietly added Kaminski, (to Mannion & Maynard-Brewer), Burke, Bell, Bree, Carey, Rankin-Costello and now Hernández to Godden, Docherty & Berry we now have circa 1000 Championship appearances in the building. In other words for them it is less an exciting foray into a brave new world more just another day at the office.

This is a place for grown ups.

Crucial to the progress has been the likes of Ramsay, Jones, Gillesphey, Edwards, Coventry, Knibbs, Apter, Olaofe, Kelman all striving to take their next career step after compelling 2024/25 seasons as elite L1 talent. The growth of some of these individuals over a season plus has been considerable..

Those from the academy Anderson, Leaburn, Campbell, Fullah getting a job in front of the above talent speaks volumes in them making the grade.

With Asiimwe, Z Mitchell, Dixon, Mbick, Kanu currently learning their trade “on the road” it leaves just Ahadme, Taylor, and A. Mitchell perhaps needing to determine where their futures may lay.

For all the talent and endeavour on display It would be remiss not to acknowledge someone, somewhere is picking up a hell of a salary tab.

Could anyone in the Museum point me in the direction of a 8+8+8 plan?

Chris_from_Sidcup · October 23

Henry Irving said:

SheedyCAFC said:

Nathan Jones is gonna be linked with other Championship clubs when they start sacking their managers, hope we can get through the whole season with him still in charge

I hope/wish he's learnt his lesson from jumping ship to Stoke and Southampton that the grass isn't always greener and that he won't always get the level of board and fan support, let alone player buy in that he's got now.

I can't see him going anywhere but I'm sure he'll be linked to vacancies regardless.

Agreed. The only roles that i think could tempt him would be if there was a huge club in this division (like Leeds) or a club close to his heart (Cardiff) but looking at the current clubs in this division, i can't really see any role he'd consider leaving us for.

Yes there are plenty of clubs who'd pay him more, but i think he's been there done that and would now value the job security, support of the board and love from the fans over a few extra quid in another role he might go to and get sacked from in 6 months.

It's also not the same as him leaving Luton who got 10k crowds. We're a reasonable sized club at this level getting 20k+ each game.

AndyG · October 23

SheedyCAFC said:

Nathan Jones is gonna be linked with other Championship clubs when they start sacking their managers, hope we can get through the whole season with him still in charge

I honestly don’t think NJ would be interested in moving atm. He has a project with an ownership that will back him, until that project is completed and we are being battered every week in the premiership ala most promoted clubs I think he will stick around

MuttleyCAFC · October 23

I think the real test will be when he feels he has taken us as far as he can. A bit like Curbs in that sense. What has happened before will have had an impact on how he looks at this.

MarcusH26 · October 23

Can't see anything come up that would genuinely tempt him away , I think Southampton severely burnt him , even if I've seen a few of their fans come round on him being not being at fault at entirely for the situation he found himself in and a lot of blame there lying with the ownership for not giving him a fair shake.

A Prem side needing a firefighter wouldn't consider him and someone wanting promotion this season thinking they could poach him would probably realise that he wouldn't get the time to implement his methods.

robroy · October 23

He would be crazy to jump, look at the nutcase running Forrest. Why risk it for now? See how the season pans out.

I think his next gig after us will be Cardiff personally.

carly burn · October 23

I'm pretty sure he yearns to prove his ability at the very top. It's not difficult to assume Southampton left a very bitter taste in his mouth.
But would he leave us for a PL gig? Doubtful. They'd probably be in serious distress and he'd have a short turnaround to make his stamp

Chris_from_Sidcup · October 23

carly burn said:

I'm pretty sure he yearns to prove his ability at the very top. It's not difficult to assume Southampton left a very bitter taste in his mouth.
But would he leave us for a PL gig? Doubtful. They'd probably be in serious distress and he'd have a short turnaround to make his stamp

What PL club would realistically offer him the job?

Greenhithe · October 23

Chris_from_Sidcup said:

carly burn said:

I'm pretty sure he yearns to prove his ability at the very top. It's not difficult to assume Southampton left a very bitter taste in his mouth.
But would he leave us for a PL gig? Doubtful. They'd probably be in serious distress and he'd have a short turnaround to make his stamp

What PL club would realistically offer him the job?

West Ham?

Sword65pf · October 23

He may be a nutter, but he isn’t stupid either. Nathan and CAFC fit, he is in total control which is integral to him being successful due to his ego. The Southampton thing really smarts on him even in the interview the other night he referred to it. He knows Charlton as a club perform best when there is a point to prove, exactly like himself, he is being backed and appears to be loving life with us, long may it continue.

carly burn · October 23

Chris_from_Sidcup said:

carly burn said:

I'm pretty sure he yearns to prove his ability at the very top. It's not difficult to assume Southampton left a very bitter taste in his mouth.
But would he leave us for a PL gig? Doubtful. They'd probably be in serious distress and he'd have a short turnaround to make his stamp

What PL club would realistically offer him the job?

If he's knocking on the door this year and next with us them I'm sure someone up there would take a punt on him.

CoveredEnd1905 · October 23

It's not worked out for him twice when changing club and took a decent amount of time for us to see a good side under him. I think both he and any club he went to would be mad to do it. Luton fans probably said the same thing on his second spell there though

sam3110 · October 23

I think Jones' PL ship has sailed, unless we get there with him. Plenty more younger or more exciting foreign managers will get the gigs ahead of him now

Chris_from_Sidcup · October 23

Greenhithe said:

Chris_from_Sidcup said:

carly burn said:

I'm pretty sure he yearns to prove his ability at the very top. It's not difficult to assume Southampton left a very bitter taste in his mouth.
But would he leave us for a PL gig? Doubtful. They'd probably be in serious distress and he'd have a short turnaround to make his stamp

What PL club would realistically offer him the job?

West Ham?

West Ham have always appointed a foreign manager or a British manager with decent PL experience.

The last time they didn't was over 20 years ago when they got Pardew from Reading.

Addick Addict · October 23

NJ's issue at both Southampton and Stoke is that he had too many players that wouldn't buy into his way of working and playing. Many of those would have been internationals who might have seen that as a backward step.

It's a bit of a standing joke about how many ex-Luton players he's signed but that is because he knows them and they know him. Bree is just one example of that - he signed him from Luton when at Southampton - and it's obvious that they both trust each other, so much so that I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't start the vast majority of games between now and January in order to cement that relationship. Hopefully we can strike a deal with Southampton.

Going to another club where players might be on long term contracts, so NJ can't shape it as he wants, won't help him because club owners and fans are very impatient. A year ago there were calls for him to be sacked but where he struck gold is that so many of ours were on just one or two year deals (probably 20 plus players that were with us the season before last aren't now) that were close to expiry. The higher you go, though, the longer those contracts tend to be.

lancashire lad · October 23

he might be a nutter, but he is our nutter

I am going to say it!! Yes I am, Nathan Jones......................

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