The season is reaching its climax. Charlton are in the thick of the promotion race. And the sun is shining on a glorious day at the club’s training ground. “You have to enjoy these times,” says Nathan Jones.
The Charlton manager is just over a year into the job and has taken his League One side from just above the relegation zone when he joined to the play-off positions.
After his ill-fated short stint at Southampton in the Premier League, this has proven to be an ideal fit. A manager looking for time and the opportunity to build a successful project, as he did earlier in his career with Luton, twice, and a club in need of stable progress after years of upheaval on and off the pitch.
“Certain factors weren’t aligned with what I wanted to do. And that’s fine,” Jones tells Sky Sports of his 14-game stay at Southampton. “You accept it. You dust yourself down. And then it’s important that you make a right choice.
“I took a lot of time. I had a lot of opportunities to go back in. But I wanted somewhere where I could go and be there for a long time.
“I knew Charlton [Jones coached the club’s U21s in 2012/13], I knew of the history, the infrastructure that they had here and I felt I could go in, recruit well, bring people that I know, and then get everyone aligned.
“So far, we’re on track with everything we want to do. But professional sport, life, football is all part of ups and downs.
“You have to learn from difficult times and it’s important that you learn from mistakes – but you don’t make too many.”
Jones describes it as “a bold move” to go from managing in the top flight to the third tier. “But I didn’t come here to manage a League One football club. We came here to manage Charlton.”
The potential held by this south east London club has attracted investors from far and wide. But there have been four ownership groups in five-and-a-half years and seven managers in that time. Stability, provided by SE7 Partners and Jones, could now bring success.
“The board have been excellent in terms of an understanding of going through a tricky spell,” says Jones, referencing a run of one win in nine in October and November, which has since been followed by just three defeats in 19.
“In previous clubs, you could have itchy fingers and so on. But we’re all aligned here.
“We’ve asked, ‘give us time and we’ll build you something’. And we’ve got that. And now we’re in a really good place. We’ve achieved nothing. Absolutely nothing. But we’re in a categorically better position than we were last year.”
Sacrificing shopping trips for success
That transformation requires commitment and Jones made headlines recently when he made it clear his players shouldn’t be spending rest days during the run-in at Bluewater shopping centre.
“I’ve got a very, very good group here and you just need to remind them sometimes that to do the things that we’re asking them to do, to be at their full throttle every session, every game, you have to live right,” he says when asked about those demands.
“Now, at times, that’s difficult. People have families, they have wives, they have girlfriends that also want to have a life. But we’re just asking for a small sacrifice over a period of time. And hopefully everyone will benefit.”
Charlton’s supporters are certainly feeling the benefit right now, having seen their side win seven games in a row at the Valley, their best run at their home ground since 2019. It could go to eight when they face play-off rivals Huddersfield Town at 12.30pm on Saturday, live on Sky Sports +.
Jones says he and his players have “had to work hard to build that rapport” they now enjoy with their fans. But the challenge is to build long-lasting progress to achieve substantial success.
“The reason I came here, was to build a football club. They’ve played at the top echelons of English football. What we want to do is get back there,” says Jones.
“But while doing that, we want to build a proper football club. We want to build a culture and environment here that goes beyond any manager or any single person.
“And we’re well on the way to doing that.” After some dark and difficult times, the sun is shining on Jones and Charlton again.