The mainstream media latched on to out of work Nathan Jones being an able replacement for Russell Martin at Swansea City late last week. We hung fire on this and waited for the results of our own review of this news on Jones.
First off, yes he is out of work at the moment, and being Welsh the media will latch on to that basic information. Where it becomes a potentially more viable move for Swansea City is nothing to do with Nathan Jones. He hasn’t been spoken to by the club. So how is there some traction ?
As we know chief operating officer at Luton Paul Watson has been spoken to by the Swans. Those talks stalled because of Luton Town’s championship play off success but also because there are other details to him becoming Swansea City’s new ‘football man’
Despite it becoming knowledge Watson was interested and almost agreed to join Swansea City matters stalled at the last minute. Not unusual for the current majority owners when they negotiate staff coming in to the club. However, it wasn’t all their fault. When the news broke Russell Martin was still functioning as head coach at the club, and of course as we know now the majority ownership were calculating a possible removal. Paul Watson we believe was aware of this, hence it becoming an issue. But more of an issue was Martin’s replacement.
We now understand that Watson is keen to renew his acquaintance with Nathan Jones, and that’s the first link, both spent a good degree of time successfully reshaping Luton Town’s player trading model. It’s a simple one, Luton recruit well but also by offering extremely low wages ( hence the Swans interest in him ) Watson we understand would require Jones to be a part of the deal that brings him to Swansea. It’s not a deal clincher but it is his preference.
Alongside that if Jones is spoken to he will want his own staff brought in. Those appointments are coaches Chris Cohen ( Ex Forest ) and Alan Sheehan ( Ex Notts County ) That’s a given regardless if Jones succeeds Martin or not. Jones spoke of Cohen when he left Luton for Southampton. His path into coaching began with Forest's Under-23s before he joined Jones at Luton in 2020. When Cohen was subsequently promoted to assistant manager in July of that year, Jones said of him: "Chris is key to how we work and key to what I do, because he’s a real trusted assistant”
Watson has told the Swans that’s how the situation will pan out. As we know last month when this news broke Martin was very much Swansea City manager, and any leaks on the club speaking to Jones would be counter productive.
If the Swans do reignite their talks with Watson it will involve a potential return to management for Nathan Jones, and also his two coaches as mentioned. That’s the brief we have, and as ever football managerial appointments are not as simple as reporting managerial links, there has to be some context.