Nathan Jones- was it a mistake not giving him the manager's role?

WhingForPresident · Jun 6, 2015

Jones reigned over what was probably our best performance of the season at Fulham in tough circumstances and seemed to get some passion into the performances from a team that looked like they couldn't care less under Hyypia. He wears his heart on his sleeve and has evident passion for the game and for the club as well, I believe (despite the Yeovil stuff).

He's clearly highly-rated further afield, considering he's out coaching the England under-21's side at the moment and has supposedly been interviewed for the Plymouth job. Which makes me wonder, should we have given him until the end of the season to show what he could do with a view to a full-time contract if he did well? Or were we right in appointing Hughton, who was obviously seen as a safe pair of hands to keep us afloat but ended up keeping us up by blind luck (other teams being shit) after a brief honeymoon period?

Not intended as a dig at Hughton, it's just a thought. He's come into a tough job with at a club expecting promotion but with a below-par team, and he needs to be given time to rebuild.

But the performances at the end of the season were very worrying, and were probably worse than anything we experienced under Hyypia.

I'm not saying I think NJ should have been appointed necessarily, as it'd obviously have been a big risk, just thought it may be a topic for debate.

SweatyMexican · Jun 6, 2015

Perhaps NJ may be decent management material, and he may have a good career ahead of him.

But although he had 2 good results during his caretaker spell, I don't think he has the experience to manage an ambitious club to the premier league. I like the guy, and he clearly loves Brighton, but I just don't think he can match Hughton. Hughton has won promotion before (I know it was with Newcastle, but still), and therefore has the knowledge to know how to get out of the division, and I don't think handing the reigns of an ambitious club to an unproven manager was likely to be more successful than Hughton was.

But we shall see next season I suppose whether that is true, hopefully Hughton can get a few good players in to partner Kayal and hopefully we can fight higher up the league next year.

spence · Jun 6, 2015

Jesus christ another one of these threads.

We stayed up and yet people still bleat on about performances and Jones. Why not back Hughton and see where he can take us.

Sheebo · Jun 6, 2015

Just makes me laugh how many on here were quick to stick the knife into Nathan whenever we had a poor run under Oscar & Hyypia yet a couple of wins and suddenly he's a decent manager. Not a dig at the OP but if I could be arsed to dig out old threads I would. As I said after NJ came to our supporters club meeting a year or so ago - he is very thorough, particular and a stato of the highest order. The FA seemed to like what they'd seen / heard so maybe we should've given him til the end of the season. Hughton did all that was required of him though essentially so let's back him - he has a lot more experience than NJ for starters...

Sheebo · Jun 6, 2015

http://www.northstandchat.com/showthread.php?301466-Nathan-Jones/page6&highlight=Burwash

NooBHA · Jun 6, 2015

sheebo said:
http://www.northstandchat.com/showthread.php?301466-Nathan-Jones/page6&highlight=Burwash

We went with an untried untested manager at the start of last year. Do we really want to give another untried untested manager an opportunity especially one who has even less chance of attracting decent players to the club. If we are going to have a go at making the Premiership and entrust fairly large sums in transfer fees, it had to go to someone who has a fairly decent track record in this division

OzMike · Jun 6, 2015

He should have been given the rest of the season and then we could get Warburton.

Stumpy Tim · Jun 6, 2015

I was one of the few backing Jones from the beginning. Having said that, performances under Hughton never reached the lows of Hyppia - yes we struggled to score, but the team were an utter shambles under Hyppia

One Teddy Maybank · Jun 6, 2015

sheebo said:
Just makes me laugh how many on here were quick to stick the knife into Nathan whenever we had a poor run under Oscar & Hyypia yet a couple of wins and suddenly he's a decent manager. Not a dig at the OP but if I could be arsed to dig out old threads I would. As I said after NJ came to our supporters club meeting a year or so ago - he is very thorough, particular and a stato of the highest order. The FA seemed to like what they'd seen / heard so maybe we should've given him til the end of the season. Hughton did all that was required of him though essentially so let's back him - he has a lot more experience than NJ for starters...

Great post.

Gullflyinghigh · Jun 6, 2015

sheebo said:
Just makes me laugh how many on here were quick to stick the knife into Nathan whenever we had a poor run under Oscar & Hyypia yet a couple of wins and suddenly he's a decent manager. Not a dig at the OP but if I could be arsed to dig out old threads I would. As I said after NJ came to our supporters club meeting a year or so ago - he is very thorough, particular and a stato of the highest order. The FA seemed to like what they'd seen / heard so maybe we should've given him til the end of the season. Hughton did all that was required of him though essentially so let's back him - he has a lot more experience than NJ for starters...

Spot on. Last year he was getting all manner of grief for a whole variety of baffling reasons ('he shouts from the touchline a lot', 'he gives interviews' etc.), essentially replacing Barnes as chief scapegoat.

Two games in charge and he's now apparently the Messiah (and not just a naughty boy) in waiting.

Justice · Jun 6, 2015

Two games is nothing jeez anyone of us might of fluked those results, almost every side seems get a few results after a manager has been sacked. Saying that I wish him all the best never had a problem with him.

Justice · Jun 6, 2015

OzMike said:
He should have been given the rest of the season and then we could get Warburton.

No thanks

KZNSeagull · Jun 6, 2015

Absolutely not and if he has any sort of career in mind, he would be silly to go off and get a managers job somewhere else for the time being. Very highly regarded as a coach for us and for England, I would stick with that if I were him for now. 2 games does not show how good a manager you are - look at Stuart Pearce for example. He will learn a hell of a lot more by working for Hughton and for England than he will managing Yeovil or anyone else.

Lurchy · Jun 6, 2015

What we needed after Hyypia was a pair of experienced and safe hands, someone who has managed before in the division, could maintain the championship status in the short term and longer term knows how to build a team to get promotion. You can not take away from what Jones did with his 2 games in charge, those points were an essential part of why we stayed up and he could go on to be a very good manager (and hopefully one for the Albion), wouldn't surprise me if he did move away to manage a lower league team but hope it isn't for a couple of years, there's a lot he can still learn.

ozzygull · Jun 6, 2015

I think at the time the club did the correct thing. In our position giving Nathan the job would have been a big risk, if it had not worked out we would have blamed the club for not getting in an experience manager to steer us to safety and the fans would have also turned on Nathan and probably lost his services as well.

Of course Nathan could have done a better job then CH, but we will never know and I don't think it was a risk the club was willing to take. It could have gone very wrong.

I like Nathan and his passion for the club was for all to see at the Fulham game. It was my one highlight of a sh!tty season, that and witnessing Ince's goal at Swindon.

If it all went wrong under CH and we are not in a relegation fight, then I would be quite happy for Nathan to be given a chance.

Surf's Up · Jun 6, 2015

midnight_rendezvous · Jun 6, 2015

ozzygull said:
I think at the time the club did the correct thing. In our position giving Nathan the job would have been a big risk, if it had not worked out we would have blamed the club for not getting in an experience manager to steer us to safety and the fans would have also turned on Nathan and probably lost his services as well.

Of course Nathan could have done a better job then CH, but we will never know and I don't think it was a risk the club was willing to take. It could have gone very wrong.

I like Nathan and his passion for the club was for all to see at the Fulham game. It was my one highlight of a sh!tty season, that and witnessing Ince's goal at Swindon.

If it all went wrong under CH and we are not in a relegation fight, then I would be quite happy for Nathan to be given a chance.

Very much this.

We will never know what NJ could have done as manager. We could have finished higher up the table, we could have limped to safety like we did under CH or we could have been relagated. All we can do is speculate about this hypothetical outcome because we will never know. What we do know however is that the club made the call to entrust our survival to someone with experience. The performances were poor towards the end of the season but at least we survived, even if what by the skin of our teeth. I have no doubt that one day NJ will make a good manager and maybe going to Argyle and L2 will be the good place to start his career but an ambitious club like Brighton need someone who can steer them towards the right end of the championship and on to the Premier League.

jonny.rainbow · Jun 6, 2015

We were utter, utter toilet against Reading, and it was frankly criminal we came out of that game with a point. Why do some people choose to portray it as if it were Liverpool V AC Milan in Istanbul?

BensGrandad · Jun 6, 2015

What people seem to be missing is the fact that when Hyppia left we were well on the road to relegation so an untried manager for the remainder of the season was a huge gamble that we couldnt afford to take. Hence an experienced man with known ability was employed yes we still struggled but he achieved the aim, he kept us up. So the proof of the pudding was in the eating and TB was proved to be correct in his decision.

Acker79 · Jun 6, 2015

You often get a new manager bump. After his two games in charge there were a few people that suggested maybe we should have given him a bit more time. But then we won three of hughton's first four games. Then, the team's form dropped off, and by the end of the season our form was worse than under Hyypia. The point being, if we'd given Jones more time, he could have had the same drop off in form, and would we still have got the new manager bump if Hughton later took over? Take those NMBs away and we still go down.

You also have the issue that Jones is well regarded as a coach, not necessarily as a manager. The appointment of Paul Clements at Derby has led to some journalists highlighting what they call 'The Sammy Lee Effect' - when a good coach becomes the number one, he doesn't often succeed. Would that have come into play?

What I've been thinking since Clement was named as Derby's new manager/head coach. I was wondering, some people on here like to bring up all the players we have missed out on, what has happened to the managers we have (supposedly) missed out on in recent years?

Phil Neville - Not done much, can't tell if we've missed out on anything
Tim Sherwood - Unemployed for a while, before saving Villa albeit with drop in form toward the end of the season (that included an FA cup final). Jury still out - was that drop in form a sign of the NMB ending, did they give up when they felt they were safe showing an inability to motivate?
Paul Clement - Stayed as number two, for a season, now taking the plunge at Derby, yet to see if we've missed anything.

Who else have we missed out on, and should we regret it?

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