‘It’ll probably give me a heart attack in the end,’ but Jones won’t dilute his passion for Luton

Boss Nathan Jones says the love he has for his job may one day kill him, but he won’t change because managing Luton is his life.

The Welshman leads his side against European and World Club Cup champions Chelsea in tonight’s FA Cup fifth round tie at Kenilworth Road. It’s his home away from home once more as he rekindled his love affair with the Hatters fans after an ill-feted 11 months at Stoke, returning to Luton to preserve their Championship in his first nine games back.

Last term he established them as a mid-table team and now has designs on the play-offs after they broke into the top six at the weekend, having claimed the club’s first second tier treble of triumphs since 1996. 

Town have also claimed the biggest points haul in the division since the turn of the year, which has included a memorable last gasp victory over Bournemouth, when he raced down the touchline and performed a knee slide so large he damaged his hamstring.

Then there was the 1-0 win at Swansea which saw him bound into the away end after the final whistle to celebrate with supporters, while chest-beating, cheering and generally animated dugout displays are de rigueur.

Jones said of his style: “It’ll probably give me a heart attack in the end. I enjoy my work, I’m passionate about my work. 

“The big thing is when you have faith in something then, ultimately, you’ll probably die for it. I hope, in god’s will, that I don’t have a heart attack and die doing it. 

“If you buy into something, but if you believe in it, then that’s what martyrdom is, metaphorical martyrdom, because I sacrifice every part of my life to the detriment of others sometimes, for this job. 

“This is what we do, so I don’t envisage losing it (passion), but if I did it might be time to then emigrate or go to god’s country or whatever. 

“My passion is how I am as a person, and whether that’s Welsh, English, Scottish or whatever nationality. But, for me, I live and breathe my job. 

“A lot of people in my life have to sacrifice because of me. They do it, some willingly, some unwittingly, because of how I am. 

“So for me to be something I’m not on the sideline would be foolish. 

“I am a passionate person, I drive stuff on and I like to be like that, but it’s my natural way of doing things. 

“I’ve had to have that to build a career because I was never the most talented individual. But I have certain characteristics that I like to accentuate. 

“I think the fans see something in me that they can relate to, because it’s not fabricated. It’s me. 

“The fans are delighted when we win a game but, trust me, I’m not sure they’re more delighted that I am. It’s their club and the love and they breathe it, but it’s my life.”

But those supporters are set to make a hell of a racket at Kenilworth Road tonight when Chelsea come to Luton. The match is a sell-out and Jones knows that any dreams of a giant-killing will need help from the home faithful to make it a reality

Asked if the Hatters will use the passion of their crowd, Jones said: “We’re going to have to. Player for player we’re not as good. As a team, we have unity but in terms of everything, they (Chelsea) are on a different planet to us at this moment in time.

“Finances, structure, size of the owner and everything, we’re going to have to use every little advantage we possibly can but what we have to do is work. We believe in our work and a lot of things will have to come right. We will need god on our side, if we do then we will win it comfortably but it’s a very difficult tie but a great one.”

Town were knocked out of last term’s FA Cup by the Blues courtesy of a 3-1 reverse at Stamford Bridge, but Luton are a better side than in January 2021.

Jones said: “We have to make sure that, we’re the best version of ourselves as if we’re not the best version of ourselves, then Chelsea haven’t got to the best version of themselves to win the game.

“But if we are the best version of ourselves then we will push Chelsea, now, how far, we don’t know, as if Chelsea are the best version of themselves, there’s not many teams who can beat them.

“So, we’re going to have a tough night, but we’re going to enjoy and the reason why we’re going to enjoy it is not because we’re going to be high-fiving and walking around as we’re on TV. It’s because we’re going to test ourselves again and we like testing ourselves at this football club as we always have, been to Newcastle, played Leeds, Villa here, played some big sides, but we like testing ourselves and that’s what we’re going to do.”