Nathan Jones' 95 day tenure as Southampton manager was never a thing of beauty. The Welshman took over from Ralph Hasenhütl with the team third from bottom and promptly failed to earn a point from any of his first four Premier League matches in charge.
Jones left the club after 14 matches, eight in the Premier League and six in cup competitions. By the time he was sacked, Southampton were bottom of the league having won just three points from a possible 24.
In an interview on Sky, Jones said that, “It was a tough time but it was a learning curve for me and I'm a better manager for that experience.“
“I don't want too many times in my career to have those experiences that I have to learn from, but that's all in the past.“
Clearly Nathan Jones has one thing to smile about
Having won promotion back to the Championship with Charlton Athletic, Jones could be forgiven for affording himself a sly chuckle. His team are ninth in the table, comfortably above Southampton who are down in 17th. He certainly seems to have learned from his mistakes.
Saints travel to The Valley for a lunchtime kick-off on Saturday intent on chasing down the leading pack after back-to-back victories before the international break.
But Jones is already playing mind games, calling the fixture “the toughest of Championship fixtures.“
What makes this fixture tough, from a Charlton point of view, is hard to fathom. On form, Charlton should be favourites to beat an underperforming Southampton side. Jones is clearly building this one up to make it all about himself.
The Welshman's compliments about Southampton's squad will no doubt fall on deaf ears among the Southampton fanbase.
Jones plays the predictable 'underdog' card
Jones prefers to be the underdog, the gritty pit-bull who will demand everything from his team. To make Saints out to be world beaters was always going to be his approach.
Make no mistake, this is a match that Jones would love to win and his faux realism is just a ruse intended to create complacency in the Southampton camp.
“The resources they have there are meteoric compared to a lot of other Championship sides, and they have a very talented, dangerous squad.“
Of course, there is some truth in what Jones is saying. Southampton have re-invested heavily in the squad after selling Mateus Fernandes and Tyler Dibling in the summer.
Leo Scienza has proven one of the signings of the season and Finn Azaz got off the mark in the home win against Sheffield Wednesday. Caspar Jander and Tom Fellows have both become key players under interim manager Tonda Eckert, building on the nucleus of a squad that won promotion in 2024.
Sadly, Southampton have not started well and the sacking of manager Will Still was inevitable. Southampton may have had the resources, but figuring out how to get the best out of a disparate and dejected squad was never going to be easy.
Jones of course, knows all of this. His mind games are about just one thing, redemption.