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How three Albion bosses shaped Jones' managerial career [The Argus]



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Brighton 8049
Jun 5, 2011
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It was the Albion glory night – and celebration – which helped turn a season.
Now Nathan Jones has spoken of the massive part a 2-0 win under his command at Fulham played in his current role at Luton Town.
And why he staged something of a repeat of those after-game scenes as he found his feet with the Hatters last season.
The Seagulls’ former player and coach pits his managerial wits against his old club for the first time today.
Albion are sending teams to both Luton (2pm) and Stevenage (5.30pm) as they step up the pre-season pace.
Those who end up at Kenilworth Road will hear a familiar Welsh accent from the home technical area as Jones, who left his coaching role at the Amex midway through last season, prepares for his first full campaign as manager.
It is a mission he knew he was ready for after taking caretaker charge of the Seagulls midway through 2014-15 season.
And one he is tackling with the help of lessons learnt from his three bosses at the Amex, particularly Chris Hughton.
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Jones told The Argus: “I had a good apprenticeship at the places I was, starting as assistant manager at Yeovil, a great club albeit with limited resources.
“It was a great learning curve and then, of my own accord, I wanted to test myself as a No.1 if you like but at under-21 level at Charlton.
“And then to work with three very different, but excellent, managers at Brighton gave me another step forward in my education.
“I felt ready to take that step. There were a number of opportunities to leave Brighton but I never felt they were the right ones to leave because I loved what I did.
“I loved my job and I loved the people there. It was a joy to go into work every day.*But this job was too good an opportunity to turn down.”
"It has been a completely different challenge to life as an assistant.*You have to put your own stamp on things, so it takes time to change people’s mentality, change the environment you are in.
“You want to get people playing your way, training your way and thinking your way and that takes time.
“Sometimes it can be a little bit daunting when you first go in but I was ready for that.
“I had a good education. I did a lot of managerial duties under Oscar (Garcia) and then Sami (Hyypia) gave me a lot of responsibility.*I think I helped Oscar’s transition into English football.
“And then I learned from just an excellent football manager in Chris Hughton.
“Chris taught me how to be with people in and around the football club.
“I’ve always been a good people person, a gregarious creature if you like.
“But Chris really taught me not so much how to coach but how to manage a football club, manage people, make decisions. He is still a regular sounding board for me.”
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Jones was pleased with progress made. He added: “From January onwards we had a top-five record.“We changed the playing style and the mentality, we had a big turnover in personnel because we had too big a squad.
“We got people in wanting to play for Luton Town and picked up a lot of good results.
“Our aim, which was a very difficult aim, was to see how close we got to the play-offs. We got very close.
“We had some good results away at Carlisle and Oxford and it was a really good bedding-in period for me.
“It taught me a lot about the league, a lot about the football club, a lot about the players and that has enabled me to put my own stamp on everything here.”
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Luton have plans for a new stadium and will move into a new training ground early in the season. Jones hopes those developments have a similar impact to that enjoyed by Albion.
The passion burns brighter than ever. Images of him celebrating a win at Wycombe last season bore a striking resemblance to those scenes in December 2014 at Craven Cottage.
“I was ambitious and I always believed I was good enough and that Fulham game really just hammered home the fact that managing was what I wanted to do,” Jones said.
“Wycombe was a big result for us. It was my fourth game in charge and it wasn’t my first away win because we had already won at Mansfield.
“But it was a big following, a really good performance and the crowd gave me a lot of energy so I just tried to give a bit back.
“It was reminiscent of that Fulham game where we had 3,500 fans there.”

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