Luton chairman believes Town are 'back on track' under Nathan Jones

Hatters chairman David Wilkinson believes the club is ‘back on track’ once more with the return of manager Nathan Jones recently.

The 47-year-old took the reins at Kenilworth Road for the second time in his career late last month, announced as the replacement for Graeme Jones, who had his contract terminated in April due to the coronavirus pandemic.

He had left under a huge cloud when departing for Stoke City back in January 2019, just days before a crunch trip to promotion rivals Sunderland, with the departure tainting plenty of the good work he had done, leading the club back into League One the previous season.

Wilkinson was one of Jones’ biggest critics at the time too, writing in his programme notes: “I would just like to wish him well and add my thanks for the work he did and the team he helped to create.

“However, the timing and manner of his departure sadly showed that he is not the man he professes to be.”

Just 16 months later though, Jones was back in the hotseat and on how the reconciliation process has worked, Wilkinson said: “I was (angry), we’ve talked a lot, we had a long conversation.

"He apologised, he told us a few things that I suppose we didn’t know, he realised he perhaps made a mistake quite early on and I think everybody makes mistakes.

“We were very, very hurt because it was a pretty awful way of doing things.

“I can remember saying on several occasions, ‘never again,’ but time heals, circumstances change and hopefully people learn.

“Gary (Sweet, chief executive) sold it very well and actually we had our first board meeting, Friday before last, when Nathan turned up Zoom half an hour before the end.

“I’d spoken to him a little before that, because he apologised to all of us personally and individually.

“He rang, Gary was the first, and then after that Gary persuaded us to give him a hearing, which we did and that’s when he apologised initially.

"I chatted to him once more after that and then when he popped up on Zoom, it was the first time we had all seen him together.

“He was questioned, people chatted to him and he did his talking about what he hopes for.

“As he joined the meeting, I said to Gary, it lightened the thing up, it brightened up the whole atmosphere which was interesting.

“Then he did his bit and at the end you could just feel the excitement back in the room, the enthusiasm back in the room, he’s back and we’re back on track.

“It doesn’t mean it’s the case, but it’s the way it felt, it felt exciting.

“So if that feeling gets moved across to the players and the squad, that’s also a positive.

“There was no negative, the odd comment early on, ‘are we sure this is the right thing?’ But that’s just part of the decision-making process.

“Everyone’s got to be supportive in the end as it doesn’t work if they’re not.

“That’s the way all our decisions work in the end, you have to bring everyone round to a point of view and then they support it, because if there’s any division it never works as the thing doesn’t function.”

Wilkinson freely admitted he had never expected to see Jones back in charge of Luton, after his anger with the manner that he left Town, taking two members of his backroom staff with him.

But having patched things up now, the chairman is confident that Jones remains the best man for the job.

Wilkinson added: “When he left, absolutely no (did he imagine a return), but as time went by and we made apologies and we made contact and started to talk again, it changed things.

“At the time it happened, it was very difficult, and particularly as Gary, Mick (Harford) and I were in the training ground that day.

“It gets you more when you’re in amongst it, but it’s all passed, that’s what history is, history is about learning, he’s learned and we’ve learned.

“The thing that was most upsetting at the time, not so much the way he played it, the fact that it stopped what looked like the progress of the plan.

“Nathan had sold himself when he first came to us, brilliantly, as to what was going to happen.

“We were going to do this to the training facilities, have these kinds of players, this was our target, it was Championship and then on.

“What is perhaps most disappointing was that he left mid-stream and that made it worse.

“If it had been an average performance and someone had come along that were going to pay him a lot more money, then it wouldn’t have hurt quite so much.

“But a lot of what you see now was put together by Nathan, the squad and the training facility and the way we work, was a lot of Nathan’s.

“So because it was so much Nathan, it made it a more sensible decision bringing him back in again when circumstances changed.

“I think he’s learnt and I think we’ve learnt, we know him better now, so there’s an element of caution, but he knows Luton Town, he understands us, he gets us, and there aren’t many that do.

“He is as Gary said the other day, the most successful manager in the last couple of decades, since Pleaty (David Pleat) probably, and it became, after that time, it became natural and now it’s like it never happened, it’s strange.”

The fact that the Welshman has such extensive knowledge of the club, a player himself under Pleat, before spending three years in charge, and signing a number of the squad, was another huge part of why Town’s board were prepared to put their trust in him again according to Wilkinson.

The chairman added: “That was one of the main reasons for doing it as he knows them all, knows how they tick and they know his style, which I presume is going to be the way that it was before.

“So long term, we know he can find decent players, we know he can motivate, we know he’s got an exciting way of playing, what more could you want?

“I think he wants to move down here to live permanently, and now he’s got a family, that makes you a slightly different person with those responsibilities, so I think it’s magic.

“It was difficult for both sides, he had to eat a huge amount of humble pie, which is never easy for anybody, and we had to get past the way he left.

“He made his apologies and at the end of the day, as we always do, you do what you believe is best for the club and the board.

“After apologies and after discussions, we believe that we needed someone who knows us, knew the players, knew the facility, knew everything about the place and was proven to be a motivator.

“So he was staring in our faces really as the man for the job.

“I don’t think any of us could think of anybody better in the circumstances, so fingers crossed it works.

”I think he is enjoying himself already and I think the players like him and go from there.”