Welcome back to Vendetta Media the Stateside home of all things Luton Town. I’m your host for the evening (and most evenings) Gavin Daly and today we are going to discuss the possibility of Nathan Jones returning to Kenilworth Road. CALM DOWN! STOP THROWING THINGS!!. I didn’t say it was going to happen just that it was a possibility. And I get it, the manner of his exit from Kenilworth Road in 2019 didn’t exactly sit well with the majority of fans, myself included, but it also can’t be denied the success he had while here.
When Nathan joined Luton in 2016 we were struggling in League Two and he was a nobody. I mean that in the nicest way possible of course, but the truth is he had been Brighton and Hove Albion’s caretaker manager for two games and otherwise spent his coaching career either as a youth coach or an assistant. Always the bridesmaid never the bride if you will. He needed to be a success here just as much as we needed him to be a success, if not more. Maybe that’s why it worked. And as much as you want to hate on him now it DID work.
Playoff heartbreak in his first full season made the promotion in his second all the sweeter. An 8-2 opening day thrashing of Yeovil Town set the wheels in motions with one of the best footballing displays by a Luton team I’d seen since the days of Ricky Hill, David Preece, and the Stein brothers. The attacking football on display was exactly what the fans deserved and the chest pumping of Jones after wins as he paraded the stands showed us this manager got it unlike a lot before him. We were all in.
7-1, 7-0, and 5-0 wins over Stevenage, Cambridge, and Swindon respectively all before the turn of the year had the fan base including myself dreaming of promotion and even five games without a win between mid-February and mid-March couldn’t stop that becoming a reality. Luton were in League One and Nathan Jones was being hailed a hero in Bedfordshire.
Then came the twist.
Flying high in League One and back to back promotions looking a real possibility Jones shocked the club and fans by leaving to take over a struggling Stoke City side. In reality this was something Luton fans had seen in the past when their teams performed admirably with players and managers moving on to bigger and better things. It’s just Jones had said “it would take something special for me to leave”. Were Stoke really that special? Or was the chance to triple his earnings the ‘something special’?
It was probably the latter and rightly so. If any of us were told we could triple our earnings to do the same job somewhere else we’d be off. You’d be lying if you said otherwise. But to then collect the League One manager of the month award in his Stoke City tracksuit!?! That stung. So much so that Chairman David Wilkinson called him out in the media saying “the timing and manner of his departure sadly showed that he is not the man he professes to be.”
All this is relevant now as Luton look to replace Graeme Jones who left by mutual consent last week. Nathan Jones is the favorite to replace his replacement despite the manner of his exit last year and whether you want him back or not you can’t deny the 51% winning ratio and fantastic football played during his first go-round at Kenilworth Road. It would seem from some wedding photos that he has also remained close to current players Glen Rea and James Collins, two players he brought to the club.
So is there a chance?
You never say never in this business and remember that David Pleat returned in 1991 for a second spell in charge after leaving the Hatters for Tottenham in 1986. Given his exited wasn’t nearly as cutthroat as Nathan’s. After promotion to the Championship Gary Sweet had this to say about Jones
“As a club, as a support base, we absolutely didn’t agree with the way that it happened and the way that I think he conducted himself at the time, but we have to give him a big round of applause and a pat on the back for everything that he has done prior to that and leading up to January.”
MNT 2022 World Cup
Sweet also mentioned that Nathan text him after the promotion to congratulate the club. So still on texting terms, eh? I’m not saying they’re the flirty, saucy texts probably exchanged during the glory days of 2018 but talking it out is always the first step to reconciliation. Just thump your chest and tell me you love me again Nathan and all will be forgiven. Maybe.
