Soccer Football - FA Cup Third Round - Newcastle United vs Luton Town - St James' Park, Newcastle, Britain - January 6, 2018 Luton Town manager Nathan Jones Action Images via Reuters/Ed Sykes
Stoke City fans were all very much delighted when they made the move to bring in Nathan Jones from League One leaders, Luton Town last month. However, the Potters are set to be brought down to earth when they realise that Jones has tried to do too much too soon, and the Welshman is unable to perform the same heroics in Stoke as he did with Luton.
The Hatters have also shown that with or without Nathan Jones, they’re a force to be reckoned with. Whilst they may have been playing gorgeous football under the 45-year-old, they’ve maintained their levels under interim manager and huge fan favourite Mick Harford. Promotion to the Championship now looks like something Luton should go on to achieve barring any major blips, and that’s even without Jones.
At Stoke City, the task ahead of the club’s new manager is huge. Jones is just four games into his spell with the Potters, and he’s only managed one win in four, even if that was against high-flying Leeds United. Away from that win, his side also threw away a 2-0 lead to lose 3-2 against Shrewsbury in a FA Cup 3rd round replay and fell to two-goal defeats against Brentford and Preston in the Championship.
With the Bet365 stadium being a Premier League ground last season, the chances are that the Potters won’t want to stick around long in the Championship, leaving Jones with the tough task of taking them back to the top flight sooner or later. If he can’t do that then he’ll surely be sacked and left with his reputation in tatters and unable to get any kind of job in the division.
Meanwhile, with Luton Town flying and looking like promotion will become a formality, if Jones had thought things through and stuck around at Kenilworth Road he could have helped to stabilise them as a Championship club and then look to move on at a more suitable time. Instead, he’s made a mid-season move, supposedly leaving his former side in the lurch and going to a high-risk low-reward job where failure is a much more likely outcome.
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