Southampton FC will be left baffled by Luton Town, Charlton Athletic heroics on 95-day evidence | OneFootball

Southampton FC will be left baffled by Nathan Jones' Luton Town, Charlton Athletic heroics on 95-day evidence at Southampton FC

Nathan Jones, who in 2018 got Luton Town promoted to League One and in 2025 led Charlton Athletic to League One play-off glory, could only survive for 95 days as Southampton boss. So, what happened when Jones took over at St Mary's, and how did both he and the Saints lose their way?

Only five managers have had shorter managerial reins at a Premier League club than Jones. Despite having lower points per game (PPG) averages (in the Premier League) than the Welshman, both Russell Martin and Ivan Juric managed to hold on to their jobs longer than Jones. It didn't seem to matter what Jones did, he was never going to be loved, respected, or even wanted at Southampton.

Southampton were a club already in a relegation battle

Jones stepped into the breach after Southampton had dropped into the bottom three under their popular boss, Ralph Hasenhuttl. Sport Republic had seen enough from the Austrian when the Saints conceded four at home to Newcastle on the sixth of November 2022. That 4-1 defeat would prove to be the former RB Leipzig man's last match in charge.

In contrast, Jones was arriving on the back of a brilliant season with Luton, who had finished sixth in the Championship and were going well again. He'd already got the Hatters promoted from League Two in 2018 and there was a sense among many outside of Southampton that he'd earned his chance to manage in the Premier League.

A difficult start at Anfield for Jones

There are fewer places more difficult to go to than Anfield for a manager in charge of his team for the first time. Liverpool away was the tough assignment handed to Jones, but his side recovered well after going behind early on in the match. When Che Adams equalised for the Saints after just nine minutes of a pulsating opening ten minutes, there were plenty of reasons to be optimistic.

But in football, it's hope that kills you and by half-time, Darwin Núñez had grabbed a brace and the Saints were heading down the tunnel at half-time two behind. They would not recover.

Jones got his first win as boss when Adams took his personal tally to three in two matches when he scored twice in an unconvincing fourth round victory over Lincoln City in the FA Cup.

However, successive defeats to high-flying Brighton and mid-table Fulham meant that Jones had lost his first three Premier League games in charge and the Saints were rooted to the bottom of the table. A home game against 15th-placed Nottingham Forest in midweek under the lights at St Mary's was an opportunity to start to turn things around.

Booed off at half-time and full-time

Clearly, Steve Cooper's side hadn't read that particular script and went ahead after 27 minutes through their Nigerian international striker Taiwo Awoniyi. Despite having two-thirds of possession, Southampton could only muster a single shot on target in the first half and were booed off at half-time. After a lacklustre second period that saw no further goals, the St Mary's faithful vented their frustration again at full-time. In a post-match interview that could now be read as a prophetic warning to their future manager Martin, Jones outed his players for being naive and lacking quality in possession.

“We gifted them the goal,” he said.

“We know they are a counter-attacking side and if you play square balls or risk balls in the midfield, you give the ball away, then you are susceptible to that.

“We did that and they got the goal. We never demonstrated then enough quality in possession... we had 60% of possession and didn't convert that into chances and that's the frustrating thing.”

An unlikely win in the FA Cup third round away at Crystal Palace kick-started a three-match winning run that would include an impressive 2-0 Carabao Cup quarter-final victory against Manchester City and a 2-1 away win against Everton in the Premier League.

The latter came courtesy of a James Ward-Prowse trademark free-kick, earning deserved praise from the new boss, as reported in the Daily Echo: “My first conversation with him [Ward-Prowse] was 10 minutes after he didn’t get picked for the England squad. Since that moment, he’s been absolutely world-class for me. The way he reacted and the performances you’re seeing now, it’s really motivated and driven.”

Semi-final defeat & sacked in the morning!

Any suggestion that there would be a prolonged upturn in Saints' fortunes under Jones was firmly shut down when they lost four of their next five games. Their only victory came in a largely inconsequential (in the grand scheme of things) FA Cup match at home to Blackpool.

That was sandwiched between defeats to a resurgent Aston Villa side who, under Unai Emery, were on their way to a seventh-placed finish and a spot in the Europa Conference League qualifiers, and Newcastle United in the Carabao Cup semi-final first and second legs.

Patience was running out by the time Southampton traveled to the Brentford Community Stadium in early February. Inside the stadium, Saints fans vented their frustration at Jones, as reported in the Echo, singing 'sacked in the morning' and 'get out of our club' as the Welshman's side went down 3-0 in a woeful display.

Jones' response, reported in the same article, was balanced and understanding: “The fans saw a performance today that justified those sayings and that's fine.

“All I can say to them is, I understand, I totally understand,” he explained.

Jones compromising on his principles

Although results and performances hadn't improved under Jones, perhaps the biggest mistake that the Welshman made was to admit that he was compromising on his principles. In the eyes of Southampton fans, this could have been a sign that he was weak and lacked conviction in his own ideas and ability to manage at the highest level.

In the Daily Echo, Jones was reported to have said: “I’ve compromised on certain principles because of personnel and the way people want to play and so on, and I’ve compromised because of fans and so on – it’s a few little things.”

The best in Europe comments lead Jones to ridicule

Despite popular opinion to the contrary, Jones did not describe himself as the best manager in Europe. He was merely describing the way that his Luton side played aggressively and on the front-foot. In trying to illustrate his point, he compared some of the statistics of his Luton team to those in Europe and said “there weren't many better than me around Europe in terms of aggression, clean sheets, defending the box, balls in the box, xG, all those sort of things”, as per Sky Sports.

The response in the media was to ridicule the Welshman. His comments were taken a little out of context and represented conceit on his part.

Had anybody bothered to read between the lines at the time, the message was simple: Jones had not felt empowered to play the brand of football that he believed in. Compromising on his principles cost him his job at Southampton. He would not make that mistake again.

The end of a very short era at Southampton

His tenure ended with a whimper at home to Wolves. Although Carlos (Charlie) Alcaraz netted his first goal of the season to put the Saints ahead, and Wolves were reduced to 10 men inside the first half-hour, a 72nd-minute own-goal by Jan Bednarek drew the visitors level. An almost inevitable late winner from substitute Joāo Gomes sent the away fans happy and left Southampton stranded at the foot of the table.

For Jones, it was his final game in charge.

Not accepted at Southampton FC

After Charlton's 2025 League One play-off final triumph against Leyton Orient, Jones was asked about the prospect of playing against Southampton in the Championship the following season. Instead of taking the opportunity to be vitriolic or disrespectful, he took a moment to reflect.

“Me going to Southampton was a sad time because I just wasn't accepted. But, I'd earned my stripes, and I'd done League Two, League One and [the] Championship and proved in every level I can get results. I actually proved it at Southampton. I got five wins out of fourteen games.

“It was just sad, because if I'd flown in from somewhere then maybe I would have got a little bit more time. But a young Welsh guy...maybe wasn't big enough for Southampton.

“But I'm big enough for Charlton and I'm very proud of that,” he stated, via YouTube.