What is the true story of Dave Jones departure from the Dell
Of course being his side of the story its always going to be weighted in favour of his views as to why Dave Jones departed from the Dell in January 2000, but to be blunt that doesnt tell the full story.
The first thing to say is that no innocent man should go through what Dave Jones had to, and whatever I think of Dave Jones, I have to say I didnt at any stage beleive he was guilty of the heinious crimes he was alledged to have committed, at worst he was part of a brutal care home system and unable to change or do anything about it.
But the truth is Dave Jones was treated fairly by Rupert Lowe, in fact a lot more fairly than either his managerial record or the circumstances demanded, if Jones had been in any other walk of life he would have been thrown out of his job without pay and in certain areas of Hampshire would have had his house attacked, in short being rich and in the public eye, enable Jones to fight his case, but he continues to present his position as that of martyr, Im sorry but the martyrs were the people in this case that were genuinely innocent and found their lives ruined by innuendo, ironically by calling the book No Smoke No Fire, Jones has used the very phrase that doesnt apply to him, this allegation has not affected his professional life in any way, he has continued to be in full employment at a very good wage since, no whisperings behind his back and polite rejection letters, no attacks in the street and people in his area shouting "Paedo" at him, as I say I would not wish what Jones went through on my worst enemy, but 10 years after the event to keep playing the martyr is hard to swallow
When the allegations arose, as he himself has admitted Southampton Football Club and its supporters were very supportive, indeed all football supporters the breadth of the country were, far from abusive chants at games, it was the opposit, it was if every fan had seen something and seen through the allegations.
What Jones failed to mention though was that his job at Saints was far from secure as these allegations arose, he had had two full seasons at the Dell and his previous one had been a complete disaster, Saints had only escaped on the last day and throughout the year it was clear that a decent squad of players was underperforming week in and week out, only a rally in the last three games when three straigh wins, over a quarter of our seasons total had saved us. It became known as the great escape and it was.
In the summer of 1999, Jones was one of the favourites for the sack and Saints supporters found it hard to see anything but another struggle with a squad that already was carrying too many expensive passengers signed by Jones, a look at the team picture shows, David Howells, Stuart Ripley, John Beresford, Scott Marshall, David Hirst, Mark Hughes, all players signed by Jones for either big money or wages and none contributed anything of note in their time at the club.
In short Jones was a man on the slide.
Yet still the club stood by him, and backed him to the hilt, in his footballing life, the allegations bought him time, something he might not have got in different circumstances.
Initially the seasons started well, we even won away on the opening day of the season, but after three wins in the opening five games, we didnt win for another eight when we beat Villa, Jones had added Boa Morte to the squad for a not insubstancial outlay and as we now know, his contributions to Saints were minimal.
By October Saints had slipped to 16th and after the aforementioned win against Villa, it would be the new year before we won again, the record was that after the fifth game, Saints would only win once in 14 games, in fact after a defeat at Watford on the 28th December Saints had only picked up 1 point in the previous six games.
Saints were on a slippery slope, the fans knew it, the Chairman knew it, the players knew it, in fact everyone seemed to know it apart from Dave Jones, the blunt truth was that the only thing keeping him in the job was the allegations, Rupert Lowe was standing by his man off the field out of a sense of loyalty to a man he saw as being persecuted, Jones managerial record would probably have warranted the sack in October.
Ironically after the New year Jones won two out of three, home games against fellow strugglers Bradford & Everton, however in between Saints had been murdered 5-0 at Newcastle live on Sky when the Toon had been 2-0 in the first 3 minutes, 4-0 up by the half hour and how it was kept to single figures was something that the entire nation asked, the Echo letter column was full of "Jones must go" pleas, according to the book In That Number, most correspondents thought Jones had lost the plot.
Not Dave Jones though, his thoughts were not on Southampton Football Club but himself, yes of course the job was probably helping him through a hard time, but he was failing in that job and to ask all the supporters of Saints to put up with relegation to satify his own needs was nothing short of selfish, the headline in last nights Echo serialisation attributed to Jones wife Anne "You have just killed my husband Rupert,youv'e stabbed him in the back" emphasise that the Jones family had thoughts only for themselves (Some would say rightly) they did not care about the fate of Southampton FC as long as Dave had something to take his mind off the situation.
David Jones has long liked to portray himself as the wronged football manager, wronged by Rupert Lowe and Southampton Football Club, the truth is absolutely the opposite, Saints stuck by him even when the situation demanded otherwise, in any other occupation Jones would have been at best suspended straight away, or sacked and unable to work, as were many other innocent co accused in this case.
Rupert Lowe left it as long as he could before dealing with the situation, but in January 2000, he had a manager who was failing and failing badly, he didnt do what he would have done if Jones wasnt in his predicament and sack him, he tried to work out a situation were Jones wouldnt feel further persecuted, at that time the trial was set for November 2000, Lowe realised that even if Saints won a few games the long term problems both on and off the pitch remained, and the following season Jones would have to take out at least a month for the trial possibly more and in the lead up would be spending more time with lawyers, Lowe was perfectly fair to Jones, he offered what should have been a fair and suitable compromise to all parties, Jones would be on full pay for a year, his reputation would still be intact and lets be frank in 2000 with the trial looming he was unemployable and with regard to Saints the problems on the field could be addressed.
Of course as history shows this was not good enough for Dave Jones, stuff Saints he wanted his distraction from the court case.
In the book Jones also suggests that there was another motive from Lowe, that of having a Premier manager with this stigma hanging over him, I dont believe that to be the case, if it was Jones would have been sacked or suspended immediately, in August 1999, Lowe was under fire from some quarters for not sacking him, he stood by Jones for far longer than Jones deserved.
Jones also questions why Lowe didnt just sack him, the truth is that Lowe felt some sympathy to Jones, his famous quote at the time was "thank god in this country a man is still innocent until proed guilty" the easy option was to fire Jones and point to his managerial record, not just in themonths since the allegations came to light, but in the previous season, Lowe took a course that enabled Jones to keep his dignity and show the world that Saints believed him to be innocent.
But Jones has always liked to put out the story of how he was wronged by Saints, never does he mention his record on the pitch that season and indeed the previous year, here is a man doing a great job and removed from it, David Jones is a victim.
Im sorry Dave but the real victims in your case and indeed others are those who have had false abuse allegations made against them, not for them six figure salaries and opportunities to proclaim their innocence in the press, many found themselves out of work and unable to find employment, many lost their houses even their families and many found themselves the subject of whispering campaigns and being shunned by friends and aquaintances who did belive there was no smoke without fire, many were physically attacked and some even went to prison wrongly, most have never recovered from their ordeal either mentally or physically.
These are the real victims, not a man who has been able to continue his career and earn much much more than them, including a lucrative book deal, I feel every sympathy for the ordeal Dave Jones had to undergo, I always thought him innocent, however i have never had respect for him either as a man or a manager of Saints, this book and its content regarding the story of his time at the Dell have taken away what little respect I did have,