Nathan Jones

Nathan Jason Jones (born 28 May 1973) is a Welsh professional football manager who is the manager of League One club Charlton Athletic.

He is also a former player who played as a left-back and a midfielder.

Jones was released by Cardiff in the summer of 1991 and went to play for Maesteg Park, Ton Pentre and Football Conference club Merthyr Tydfil.

Jones began his career with Football Conference club Merthyr Tydfil before joining Luton Town in the summer of 1995.

He spent two years at Penydarren Park before signing for David Pleat's Luton Town in July 1995 for a fee of £10,000.

However he soon became homesick at Luton and so moved to Spain to join Segunda División club Badajoz who were managed by Englishman Colin Addison.

The team narrowly missed out on promotion to La Liga in 1995–96, missing out to Extremadura by one goal.

Jones dropped down to the Segunda División B in 1996–97 joining Numancia and helped them gain promotion via the play-offs.

Jones credits his time in Spain as a major impact on his life and career.

He became homesick at Luton so took an opportunity to move to Spain with Badajoz and then Numancia and returned to England with Southend United in 1997.

Jones returned to England play for Southend United in 1997.

He spent three seasons at Southend, including a loan at Scarborough in the 1998–99 season, where he was part of the team relegated by Jimmy Glass' memorable goal for Carlisle United.

He moved to Brighton & Hove Albion where he made over 150 appearances during his five seasons at the club, achieving three promotions.

Jones spent three seasons at Roots Hall which included a brief loan spell with Scarborough in 1999.

He moved on to Brighton & Hove Albion in 2000 and was part of the team that won three promotions in five years.

He joined Yeovil Town in 2005 where he spent seven seasons in League One making over 200 appearances.

Whilst at Yeovil, Jones began taking his coaching badges, spending time as first-team coach of Yeovil Town Ladies and later player-assistant manager of the first team.

Jones moved to Yeovil Town in 2005 and established himself as a member of the first team.

His seven-year association with the club included captaining the team at Wembley Stadium for the 2007 Football League One play-off final, resulting in a 2–0 defeat to Blackpool.

Jones started his FA Level Three Coaching Badge in the summer of 2008, and became first-team coach of Yeovil Town Ladies from November 2007, alongside manager Steve Phelps and assistant manager Nigel Wolfe.

On 18 February 2009, Jones was confirmed as player-assistant manager of Yeovil, alongside player-manager Terry Skiverton.

Following Skiverton's replacement by Gary Johnson, Jones was demoted to the role of first-team coach.

He left Yeovil in 2012 and joined Charlton Athletic as their under-21 professional development coach, a role which he held for one season.

He returned to Brighton as a member of the coaching staff to Óscar García, Sami Hyypiä and Chris Hughton.

On 1 June 2012, Jones left Yeovil Town by mutual consent after seven years and having played 211 matches for the club.

On 27 June 2012, Jones joined Championship club Charlton Athletic as their under-21 professional development coach.

On 19 July 2013, Jones joined Championship club Brighton & Hove Albion, filling the new position of assistant head coach, working under head coach Óscar García.

Following Oscar's departure from Brighton and the appointment of new manager Sami Hyypiä, Jones changed roles and became Brighton's first-team coach.

After Hyypia's resignation on 22 December 2014, Jones was appointed as caretaker manager.

Following Chris Hughton's appointment as manager on 31 December 2014, Jones moved back to his role as assistant manager.

On 3 February 2015, after the appointment of Colin Calderwood as Hughton's assistant manager, Jones was demoted to the role of first-team coach.

Jones left Brighton in January 2016 to take over as manager of League Two club Luton Town.

He guided Luton to the League Two play-offs in 2016–17 losing out to Blackpool, but earned promotion to League One in 2017–18 finishing in second place.

On 6 January 2016, Jones left his role as first-team coach with Brighton to become the new manager of League Two club Luton Town on a two-and-a-half-year contract.

With Luton on course for a second consecutive promotion, Jones left in January 2019 for Championship club Stoke City.

His time at Stoke was ultimately unsuccessful, with him being dismissed in November 2019.

Jones returned to Luton in May 2020, subsequently saving the club from relegation following the restart of the season after the UK's lockdown, and guiding them to a playoff place in the 2021–22 season.

In November 2022, he left Luton for a second time and joined Premier League club Southampton, but lasted just three months in the role before he was sacked.

In February 2024, Jones was appointed manager of Charlton Athletic.

Jones was born in Blaenrhondda, a small mining village in the Rhondda Valley, and began his career with the youth team at local club Cardiff City.