Nathan Jones will be relishing November 22nd at Charlton Athletic for one clear reason | OneFootball

Nathan Jones will be plotting to get one over on Southampton when his Charlton Athletic side face them in mid-November.

Having gained promotion back to the Championship this season, Charlton Athletic will be desperate to show they can remain competitive in the second-tier, and Nathan Jones will have his eye on one fixture in particular to show he himself is at a level where he belongs.

The Addicks gained promotion to the second-tier via the play-offs last season, with a slender 1-0 defeat of London rivals Leyton Orient in the final at Wembley Stadium.

In the aftermath, there were strong links suggesting that Cardiff City would try and poach boyhood Bluebirds supporter Jones, but the former Luton Town boss instead signed a new five-year deal at The Valley.

As Charlton went up from League One last year, another of Jones’ former clubs, Southampton, were instead heading down from the Premier League and their clash in mid-November will be one that Jones is very much focused on.

Charlton Athletic boss Nathan Jones will be keen to prove something against Southampton

Having done impressive work in two stints at Kenilworth Road in charge of Luton Town, Jones earned a shot at managing in the top-flight, being appointed Southampton boss in November 2022.

With the Saints, though, Jones endured something of a nightmare couple of months, despite a defeat of Manchester City in the quarter-finals of the EFL Cup at St Mary’s.

In 14 games in charge of Southampton, Jones managed five victories with nine defeats, although four of those five wins came in the FA Cup and the EFL Cup, with their only league win during his tenure coming from behind in a 2-1 victory against Everton at Goodison Park.

Often ridiculed by neutrals for some admittedly relatively bizarre comments and his general demeanour on the touchline, Jones eventually left the Premier League after just three months’ in charge, and it would be a year until he returned to management.

Nathan Jones has reignited his managerial career at Charlton Athletic

That return to management saw him take charge of an underperforming Charlton side that were still struggling to mount any serious challenge to getting out of League One.

However, in the 2024/25 campaign, in Jones’ first full season after an ambitious and impressive summer transfer window, Charlton propelled themselves up the table in the second-half of the campaign and eventually defeated both Wycombe Wanderers and then Orient in the play-offs.

Jones has done impressive work at both Luton and Charlton during his managerial career, but it also very much Jekyll and Hyde with swings to extremely poor stints in charge of Stoke City as well as at Southampton.

However, he has a Charlton squad and fanbase that wholeheartedly believes in him and his methods at the moment, so when his Addicks side face off against Southampton at The Valley in November, it will be a brilliant opportunity for Jones to get one over on his former employers.