Former Stoke City defender weighs in on Nathan Jones debate following Southampton sacking | OneFootball

Former Stoke City defender Ashley Williams has said he is not surprised how things have gone for Nathan Jones at Southampton given his time under the Welshman at the Bet 365 Stadium.

Williams spent the 2018/19 season on loan with the Potters, midway through which Jones took over as club boss.

In some rather scathing comments on the time they shared at the Stoke, as well as other things, Williams branded Jones as insecure

“It hasn’t surprised me what’s happened because he came from Luton where he did well. We had a Stoke team in the Championship that on paper should have walked it, but we weren’t doing very well.” Williams told Rio Ferdinand Presents FIVE Youtube Channel.

“We had some Champions League winners in there, Bojan, Darren Fletcher, x amount of Premier League appearances in there, Ryan Shawcross, myself, Charlie Adam, you could go from top to bottom, Jack Butland.

“I felt like when he came in, the first speech that he gave was along the lines of ‘I’m not going to teach you lot how to play’. We all came out of the meeting straight away going that doesn’t make sense. He already had an inferior attitude to what he was seeing in front of him instead of taking control.

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“All the lads were great lads at Stoke but he straight away came across as a little bit insecure and now I’m looking at all these faces I’ve seen in the Prem for so long. It was like one of the rants that he had – I’m going to bend to what you guys want. We didn’t want anything, we just want you to tell us what to do and we’ll get it done or try our best to get it done.”

Given what Williams experienced when he was at Stoke City, then, the defender says he was eager to see if Jones had learnt from his previous mistakes having lost the job and gone back to Luton for a few seasons, where he had once again enjoyed relative success.

“When he went into Southampton I just thought well he’s gone back to Luton we’ll see if he learned from the Stoke thing.” Williams added.

“I think he referenced it in one of his early interviews about that he’s learned from that situation.

“Clearly he hasn’t because he came out with two mad rants that everyone was like well you’re just unfolding on TV.

“And, then ends up not doing nothing up against the sack so I’m like well clearly nothing was learned then.”

The Verdict

We all know that Nathan Jones time at Stoke City didn’t exactly go well, going on to be sacked after just 38 matches in charge between January and November 2019.

These comments will no doubt be water off a duck’s back for Jones, but they are scathing nonetheless.

Given how things have gone for Jones outside of Luton so far in his career, you do perhaps question where his next managerial job is going to come from.

One thing is for certain – comments like these from former player shaving worked under him will do him no good whatsoeve,t what level his next managerial job could come.