Is tonight the end of the Nathan Jones era before he rides off into the Premier League sunset on the Southampton coast, or will there be an unlikely twist in the tale? One thing is for sure, Stoke v Luton tonight will be as much a pantomime as it will a football match.
“Oh no it won’t,” say some of you. “Oh yes it will,” bemoan others.
There’s still a chance he could remain as Hatters boss, of course, with a big Michael Beale-esque rebuffing of the Saints’ offer of top-flight milk and honey.
“It’s behind you,” some have already determined of Jones’ second coming.
“Oh no it isn’t,” a few stragglers shout!
Well, yeah, technically they’re correct. It’s not over yet and, at Stoke, the show must go on, luvvies. Break a leg.
On second thoughts, it would be nice if Luton’s players steered clear of injuries for once!
Usually, we’d be pondering possible line-ups and formations. But, honestly, on days like these, who can summon the energy?
But, for the sake of keeping up appearances, given the injury and defensive crisis engulfing Luton, Gabriel Osho will probably come back from his three-match suspension to partner in defence who should really be man-of-the-moment, Tom Lockyer.
But we all know that the focus will be on his countryman in the dugout. Can Nathan Jones inspire his men into one last memorable away-day battle, putting their bodies on the line, like at Blackpool?
“Oh yes, he can,” some will say. Others will be not so sure. Football is a game of opinions, after all. But it’s also played by humans. So, there’s also a chance that players, like some fans, will be affected by the possible limbo and upheaval that await. The reception at the Bet365 Stadium will be interesting to say the least.
What is it with Stoke inserting themselves, wittingly or unwittingly, into Luton’s managerial musical chairs, eh?
But it’s different this time, isn’t it? Well, yes and no. More than 24 hours on from the realisation that Nathan Jones is likely heading for the stage door again, it is possible to exist in two conflicting states.
As opposed to his controversial 2019 departure for the Potters, there’s talk of negotiations with Southampton done in the “correct manner” leading to Jones being given permission to speak with the Premier League strugglers after tonight’s game, with Luton stating the “whole situation is extremely amicable with Southampton and with Nathan.” Given how his first exit went down three years ago, perhaps tonight’s game against Stoke is a chance to say a proper farewell.
Certainly, some reports suggest terms have already been agreed, so the writing looks on the wall. The sensible mind says you can’t begrudge a boss a move to the ‘big time’ – even if the Premier League’s 30-year propaganda offensive has warped minds into thinking perma-survival is reflective of the term.
That’s not a dig at Southampton. They’re a decent club. Are they a ‘bigger’ one than Luton? Clearly. Are they in a better position than Town? For now, yes. Have they got more money? Absolutely (quite crucial, this). And is it the chance of a lifetime for Jones? Well, we’ll see.
So what’s the argument? You and I would all take, in a heartbeat, a bigger salary and a promotion. Well, it’s that these are all valid points, but they’re not very Luton are they? The focus is on what Saints are getting but there’s no devil in the detail of what the Hatters are losing. Some Hatters will no doubt backtrack, or claim their 2019 feelings never went away, but Jones leaving will be the end of a Luton love affair. Again. And they’re never easy.
But, barring a nuclear apocalypse, the Hatters will still exist after Jones and you and I are gone and a football club is bigger than one man. Well, quite. All the usual platitudes and clichés apply.
But, the opposing view, which you can wallow in simultaneously, is concern that Jones’ departure could leave a huge gaping hole in the progress ambitions of the club.
That’s a view arrived at with corroborating evidence. Yes, Mick Harford steered Town to the League One title after Jones’ first departure to his ill-fated spell at Stoke. But then, under his permanent replacement, Luton were on the brink of immediate Championship relegation.
Hindsight and revisionism, have pigeon-holed Graeme Jones as a terrible appointment, but it was entirely the right choice… to begin with.
Luton’s board seemingly took the recruitment formula that equalled Nathan Jones and extended it to add up to his namesake. On both occasions, they took a young, hungry, well-respected coach looking for his first managerial role. One worked. One didn’t.
Luton were supposed to have five more years, at least, of the one that worked, the ink barely dry on a mammoth new deal penned in January that would take the Welshman’s tenure up to 2027. But we all know that football contracts aren’t worth the paper they’re written on, and that less financially disadvantaged suitors would have their heads turned the moment Jones, operating on a shoestring budget, scooped the Championship manager of the year award, if not sooner.
Yet that only sharpens the justified sense of unfinished business and what could have been. It’s always the hope that kills you.
At the same time, the smart money would also be on 2020 having a succession plan, even if they hoped it would not be enacted for some years yet. But “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth” – so said legendary boxing heavyweight champion, Mike Tyson.
All the data, all the analysis, all the planning can be done to the nth degree in the recruitment process – and Luton, on the whole, do it well – but football frequently flouts all known rules.
Sometimes there’s just unfathomable magic at work. Some alchemistic brew in the ether that us mere mortals talk of glowingly, but cannot explain. If you could bottle it, you’d be a millionaire, but you can’t. You can just enjoy it when it happens, and despair when it doesn’t. “Never too high and never too low” was always a pre-Jones communal white lie on which we all drank the Kool-aid. Football is both or it’s pointless.
In both managerial spells (though the second is still theoretically in motion), there has been magic in their air. The chest-beating, the air-punching, the declarations of love and the songs, they’re all as true as the results, the promotions, the good times and the unity.
With the Welshman, Hatters have dared to dream for so long now, that in some circles it will be virtually inconceivable that the good ship Luton doesn’t sail on course regardless. But nothing last forever.
Once Jones has gone, whether that’s tomorrow or in 2027, the unknowable abyss is how can the club continue the illusion? That being a team which is the sum of its parts, punching above its weight and all pulling in the same direction. The meaning behind the revelled in social media hashtag #TeamsLikeLuton. All of it. How much of that is down to Jones?
Big decisions and even bigger realisations await and let’s be honest and admit that we just don’t know the answer. We hope. That’s about us much as we can do.
Football is an ever-changing elixir, served in identical cups both half full and half empty. So, at times like these, it is perfectly acceptable to flit maniacally between both states.
Oh no, it isn’t!
Oh, yes. It really is.
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