Nathan Jones won’t want to look back on his press conferences at Southampton too fondly following his sacking as the club’s first-team manager on Sunday.
Time was up for Jones after Saturday’s home defeat against 10-man Wolves as the Welshman saw his tenure brought to an end after just 94 days in charge.
Jones didn’t do himself any favours when facing the media at Saints, with his brazen honesty and lack of filter when answering questions leading to his sacking.
Astonishing statements saw him claim that he turned Luton into one of the ‘statistically best teams in Europe’ during his time at the Championship club, and in his final pre-match press conference explained that he ‘could have stayed and married a nice Welsh girl’ instead of moving into management.
Sportsmail looks back on some of Jones’ wildest claims and most outlandish statements during his short stint in charge of the Premier League’s bottom-of-the-table strugglers.
Jones perhaps saved one of his most eye-catching quotes for his final pre-match press conference at Southampton on Thursday.
The 49-year-old was asked about the challenges he was facing at Saints amid a disastrous run of at the time just one win in six league games.
Jones quipped that he could have stayed in his homeland of Wales and enjoyed a quiet life but instead decided to move into management. Perhaps now he’s out of work Jones might check for any vacancies as a PE teacher.
Jones said: ‘The manager left and my next move was to go to Spain. No logic in that as I was homesick in Luton and I decided to go to Spain.
‘I enjoy a challenge, I could have stayed in the mining community and been a P.E teacher and had a nice life. Married a nice Welsh girl and all of those things… beautiful.
‘I want to test myself and that’s nothing against Welsh girls.’
Jones lost his head after Southampton’s final away defeat against Brentford that saw Thomas Franck’s side put three goals past a humiliated Saints squad.
The now out-of-work boss blew off steam in the wake of another damaging defeat and weirdly began his defence by harping back to his time in charge of Luton. (DailyMail)
