First Team Manager
Nathan Jones
First team staff
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Biography
Date of birth
28/05/1973
Signed
28/05/2020
Country
Wales
Welshman Jones returned to Kenilworth Road for a second spell as manager on his 47th birthday in late May 2020, as the Hatters started training again following the suspension of the EFL season due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Jones was initially appointed in January 2016 as John Still's successor, but left for Stoke City in January 2019 having led the club from the lower reaches of League Two to the automatic promotion places in League One.
A former coach and assistant-manager at Brighton & Hove Albion, Charlton Athletic and Yeovil Town, he was a player at Kenilworth Road in 1995 but left without making an appearance.
Jones spent a year in Spain before returning to the UK and playing for Southend, Brighton and Yeovil, making over 500 appearances. He began his coaching qualifications while still a player with Yeovil, initially coaching the Ladies team, and achieved his UEFA Pro-Licence in 2014.
His first full season in the Hatters hot-seat ended with a fourth-placed finish and qualification for the League Two play-offs, but semi-final heartbreak against Blackpool meant the Town stayed in the fourth tier for 2017-18.
Jones passed 100 games in charge of the Hatters in October 2017 – the same month in which he picked up his first Sky Bet League Two Manager of the Month award. He went onto win it again in November and April to complete a memorable hat-trick as he masterminded the club’s promotion to League One.
He penned a new four-year contract with the club in January 2018, shortly before the FA Cup third round trip to Premier League Newcastle United, but left for Championship club Stoke a year later, three days after celebrating his third anniversary in charge.
Having parted company with the Potters in November 2019, Jones returned to Kenilworth Road after 16 months away as replacement for Graeme Jones, with the squad starting training in preparation for the final nine games of the Championship season following the easing of the Covid-19 lockdown.
With four wins and four draws from those matches, Jones oversaw The Great Escape to maintain the club's second tier status and then led the side to 12th place in 2020-21, the Hatters' highest finish for since being relegated from the top division in 1992.
In 2021-22, having signed a mid-season contract extension until 2027, Jones went even better by masterminding qualification for the play-offs in sixth position, Huddersfield Town eventually ending hopes of promotion to the Premier League with a 1-0 aggregate semi-final win.
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