|
|
|
|
Dave Jones
|
| |
|
| |
David (Dave) Robert Jones (born 17 August 1956 in Liverpool, Lancashire) is an English football manager currently in charge of Cardiff City.
most professional managers in the game, Dave Jones enjoyed a career as a player in his early years. He started his professional career with Everton in his home town of Liverpool. He played as a defender with the team for seven years, during which time he represented the English national team at youth and under-21 level.
He left Everton to play for Coventry City in 1981 for a transfer fee of £275,000 - after three seasons he picked up a knee injury which threatened to end his football career.
After recovering from this injury, he played two further seasons for Seiko in Hong Kong and one season for Preston North End before retiring.
After retiring from professional football he went on to become assistant manager at Southport where he also made 2 appearances as a player.
Jones started his managerial career as assistant manager to Bryan Griffiths at Southport in 1986-87 before they both left and took up identical roles at Mossley A.F.C. for the 1988-89 season.
Discussion
Ask a question about 'Dave Jones' Start a new discussion about 'Dave Jones' Answer questions from other users |
Encyclopedia
David (Dave) Robert Jones (born 17 August 1956 in Liverpool, Lancashire) is an English football manager currently in charge of Cardiff City.
Playing career
Like most professional managers in the game, Dave Jones enjoyed a career as a player in his early years. He started his professional career with Everton in his home town of Liverpool. He played as a defender with the team for seven years, during which time he represented the English national team at youth and under-21 level.
He left Everton to play for Coventry City in 1981 for a transfer fee of £275,000 - after three seasons he picked up a knee injury which threatened to end his football career.
After recovering from this injury, he played two further seasons for Seiko in Hong Kong and one season for Preston North End before retiring.
After retiring from professional football he went on to become assistant manager at Southport where he also made 2 appearances as a player.
Managerial career
Dave Jones started his managerial career as assistant manager to Bryan Griffiths at Southport in 1986-87 before they both left and took up identical roles at Mossley A.F.C. for the 1988-89 season. In July 1990, he joined Stockport County as a manager for their youth team and took over as first-team manager from Danny Bergara in March 1995. He took the team into the First Division (now the Championship) from an automatic promotion place in 1997. He also took the club to the semi finals of what was then the Coca Cola Cup where they were narrowly defeated by Middlesbrough, 2-1 on aggregate despite an impressive win at the Riverside Stadium. During the same cup run Stockport County also defeated Sheffield United, Blackburn Rovers, Southampton and West Ham United, all of whom were in higher divisions than the club at the time. Dave was born in the same year as Paul Sturrock and George Burley
Southampton
This promotion brought him to the attention of Southampton, who offered him a contract to manage their Premiership team. His reign during the 1999–2000 season was rocked by his arrest on charges of child abuse during his employment as a care worker in the late 1980s.
The case put tremendous strain on the manager, who was forced to defend his case on Merseyside whilst managing a team based over two hundred miles away on the south coast. In January 2000, Southampton decided to suspend him on full pay until the case was resolved with Glenn Hoddle taking over his managerial duties.
When the case eventually came to court, it was thrown out in its first week - the judge recording a not guilty verdict and commenting that the case should have never reached the trial stage.
Southampton paid off the remainder of Jones' contract and he was free to leave the club - Jones contended that this amounted to unfair dismissal and took the case to industrial tribunal but their decision was upheld.
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Jones took over at Wolverhampton Wanderers, signing a three-year contract on 3 January 2001. The side were then sat 12th in the First Division after a poor first half to the season under Colin Lee. Results continued to remain indifferent though and the side eventually finished 12th.
The summer of 2001 saw Jones undertake a large overhaul of the playing squad in the pursuit of promotion. He spent over £7million - the largest spending in the club's history in one transfer period - bringing in the likes of Nathan Blake, Colin Cameron, Mark Kennedy, Alex Rae and Shaun Newton. Additional firepower was also later purchased in Kenny Miller and a cut-price Dean Sturridge. These players would go on to form the backbone of the Wolves side for the remainder of Jones' reign.
Jones' new-look team quickly made an impact, hitting the top of the league by late September, and remaining in the automatic promotion spots over the following months. He won the Division One Manager of the Month Award in February 2002, as part of a sequence of 10 wins from 11 games. By mid-March, they sat in 2nd place, with an 11 point lead over their arch-rivals and nearest challengers West Bromwich Albion.
However, the final nine games saw Wolves' form slip drastically, taking just 10 points from 27 available, while Albion, in contrast, won 8 of their final 10 fixtures to overtake their rivals and pip them to promotion. Jones suffered more disappointment when his side compounded their poor end to the campaign by losing their play-off semi-final to Norwich City.
The following season proved a similar rollercoaster ride for Jones. Inconsistent early form left them well off the pace for automatic promotion and a dismal Christmas period saw him under increasing pressure. An FA Cup win over top flight seemed to reverse fortunes though, and his side lost just 2 of its remaining 20 games to finish 5th, in the play-off zone. A 3-0 victory over in the final saw Jones become the first manager to return Wolves to the top level in 19 years and only manager to have taken them to the Premier League after a decade of attempts.
Jones had just £4million to spend in the summer preparing for Premiership football, however, the team was significantly weakened by the season-long injuries to Joleon Lescott and Matt Murray, and began the season missing several other key components of their promotion. The side endured a nightmare start to the campaign, shipping 9 goals in 2 defeats, and remaining winless until their eighth match. Although, he oversaw several credible results - most notably defeating - his side was mired in the dropzone for almost all the season and was duly relegated in 20th place with 33 points. This marked Jones' first - and to date, only - relegation as a manager.
Jones aimed for an immediate return to the Premier League in 2004/05, but had to begin the season once again under a cloud of injuries. His squad was now ageing, with most of the players bought as experienced pros in 2001 still forming the core. The side failed to live up to expectations and managed just 4 wins from the first 15 games, leaving them 17th. As pressure mounted, he was sacked on 1 November 2004, after a final loss against a side reduced to 10 men, whom Wolves had beaten 6-0 in their last meeting 18 months earlier.
Cardiff City
During Jones' first season in charge of Cardiff City, they achieved a respectable 11th place in the Championship. Re-building over the summer of 2006, Jones forged a talented side who found themselves at the top of the Championship. However, after a strong start, poor form later in the season led to Cardiff City finishing the season in 13th.
On 29 September 2007 Jones was sent from the dugout and into the stands during a league match against Barnsley after criticising referee Phil Dowd over a penalty decision. He was formally charged with misconduct on 2 October. Jones countered by claiming that, "I was angry with the referee because I think he was the only person in the stadium that didn't think it was a penalty. He didn't make a big call."
He also complained that Dowd ordered him into a section of the stadium containing Barnsley fans and feared that his safety had been put at risk. He stated that, "To send me the stand is crazy because he's then endangering me by sending me through the crowd, who are just going to abuse me"
He faced an FAW hearing about the incident and was found guilty resulting in a two-match touchline ban, which he served in the Championship match against Plymouth Argyle and the third round FA Cup tie against Chasetown.
On 9 March 2008 Jones led Cardiff to their first FA Cup semi-final tie since 1927 after beating Premiership side Middlesbrough 2-0 in the quarter-finals. On 6 April Cardiff City beat Barnsley 1-0 at Wembley Stadium to book an FA Cup Final place against Portsmouth. Cardiff City lost the Final, played on 17 May 2008, with the only goal of the game being scored by Nwankwo Kanu for Portsmouth, after 37 minutes play.
The start of the 2008-09 season saw veterans Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Robbie Fowler and Trevor Sinclair released and the sales of some of the team's biggest assets in Glenn Loovens and Aaron Ramsey. Despite this Jones brought in several new faces and by November Cardiff found themselves in a play-off spot, earning Jones the Championship manager of the month for October.
Child abuse case
In June 1999 Jones was formally questioned by police over alleged sexual abuse at St George's School in Formby, Merseyside, a home for children with educational and behavioural problems, where he had been employed as a care worker from 1986 to 1990. After voluntarily attending the police station, he was arrested then questioned, before being released on bail without charge.
He was subsequently charged on 27 September with nine offences against young boys of indecent assault and child cruelty. He denied all the allegations and stated he was "confident that [his] innocence will be established in due course".< He appeared before Merseyside Magistrates Court on 2 November 1999 where he formally pleaded not guilty to all charges and was granted bail.
The case reached Liverpool Crown Court in December 2000, by which time Jones had parted company with Southampton Football Club. He stood trial on an eventual 21 charges, which was swiftly reduced to 14 after two other alleged victims pulled out of proceedings on the eve of the trial. After a further alleged victim declined to appear or refused to give evidence, the Judge directed the jury during the fourth day of proceedings to return a formal not guilty verdict on four charges relating to the absent party. After decreeing a retrial would not be "just" on the remaining charges, the Judge recorded not guilty verdicts on the remaining 10 charges. Jones left cleared of all allegations and was told by the Judge: "No wrongdoing whatsoever on your part has been established".
One of the key "victims" was later found to have fabricated their claim of abuse in Jones' and other cases brought from Operation Care - the Police investigation into child abuse - in order to win compensation. Jones himself later spoke bitterly of the handling of the case and claimed it was the cause of his father's death, who had passed away shortly after the allegations became public.
Honours
Stockport County
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Cardiff City
Managerial statistics
External links
|
| |
|
|
