Once again dave Jones book seems to be liberal with the truth
After my review of Dave Jones book No Smoke Without Fire, I had hoped that i could leave it at that, however a paragraph in his book printed in the serialisation in the Daily Echo could not be left without comment.
In the book Jones states that as he pulled up to the Dell he was approached by three members of the Southampton Independent Supporters Association and was told in no uncertain terms that "if he didnt play Le God otherwise known as Matt Le Tissier they would get rid of me like they had got rid of every other manager"
He complains that there wasnt a word of welcome or good luck just a full frontal assault teling him how to do his job.
He states that he asked if it was a threat because if it was he would get two double decker bus loads of scousers down to ort them out.
Now of course Dave Jones needs to sell books but he is being economical with the truth here, at the time I was of course vice Chairman of SISA and I cannot recall the incident, however in the week that Jones arrived I and several other members of the then SISA committee met with Jones and his two assistants at the Maple Leaf club in Southampton, a meeting arranged by Rupert Lowe, who was incidentally not present.
The meeting was fairly amicable, we asked Jones questions and he asked us our thoughts on the team etc, it was at that meeting that Le Tissier was discussed, in truth it was a jokey exchange, where we laughed and told Jones of Le Tissier's standing with the supporters and that they (the supporters that is not SISA) would run him out of town if Le Tissier was dropped, it wasnt a threat and reading itback today I cant believe that anyone would take it as so, after all this was Southampton not Dodge City and he was Dave Jones not Wyatt Earpp, at that point Jons jokingly made mention of he would bring down two double decker buses full of scousers, laughter ensued and no one seemed to have taken any offence, we from SISA certainly slept easily in our beds, e didnt lay awake listening for double decker buses pulling up outside our houses and neither did we contact the police to complain that we had been threatened with the Liverpool underworld.
Without going into the meeting too much, Jonestold us he would be taking a little while before he made any signings as he was aware that the budget was tight and he had to be careful with it, we told him where we thought the team was weak or strong etc, these werent demands merely the views of those present, indeed several different views emerged on various players. One thing though that we all agreed on was that wehad Le Tiss and that in Maik Taylor we had the best young keeper in the premier
We left the meeting feeling happy with what had been said, however that iew changed a matter of days later when Jones signed Paul Jones and Lee Todd, virtually 3/4 of the transfer budget had been blown on two players, we all felt that Jones had lied to us, he hadnt taken the time he said he was going to to review the players he had to hand, he had gone out and signed his own men without looking to see what he had in those positions, he had lost our trust, o course we didt expect him to make us privvy to all his thoughts, but he had told us one thing and done another.
With regard to his comments in the book there are a couple of points, firstly SISA had not got rid of every manager as he claims, whilst its true that SISA was formed in order to oust Ian Branfoot, there had been three managers between Branfoot and Jones, all had been popular with the fans and none had had a whisper of an "Out Campaign" campaign, by SISA otherwise, those managers were Alan Ball Dave Merrington and Graeme Souness.
Jones states that Saints had an oldish team that needed rebuilding when he arrived, absolute rubbish, they had Taylor in goal, Dodd and Benali as full backs, Lundekvam, Oakley, Mickey Evans, Ostenstad, Maddison, Neilson, Magilton, in fact there were few players who could be considered veterans with most of the squad being under the age of 27/28.
Another piece that Jones forgets to mention in his book is thaton the day the allegations broke, myself & Richard Chorley of the SISA committee went to his house in Chilworth with flowers for his wife and told him to his face that we did not believe that the allegations were founded and that weand the Saints supporters backed him in his fight to clear his name, of course this does not back up the story he wishes to paint about Saints, those that were going to the games know the story of Jonesand his squad and the players available, I havent read much of his book, but what is clear is that parts of it are far from the truth, a little research shows up the fact about the squad age, that gives some indication that Jones s wiling to distort even statistics for his own aims.
I admit I never found Dave Jonesa nice or likeable man, in fairness I didnt care, I didnt want to be his friend I wanted him to make Saints successful, but I also found him a man who put himself first in every situation and I found him lacking in honour, that said I still believe his innocence in the abuse allegations.