Gary Sweet: It took a long time before I could answer Nathan Jones' phone-calls again

Town CEO was always confident of repairing differences
Hatters boss Nathan Jones was back at the Brache todayHatters boss Nathan Jones was back at the Brache today
Hatters boss Nathan Jones was back at the Brache today

Town chief executive Gary Sweet admitted he took a while before he was able to answer the phone to Nathan Jones following the manner in which he left the club back in January 2019.

Then, Jones had just completed three years in charge at Kenilworth Road, before deciding to leave and move up to the Championship, joining Stoke City.

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Town went on to win promotion themselves under Mick Harford, but such was the disappointment with the manner Jones left, it meant Sweet took a while to forgive and forget.

However, he has now done so, with Jones unveiled as manager once more for his second spell in charge this morning.

Speaking to the press via Zoom, Sweet said: “I think it's generally well-known that I've been ignoring his calls for a long time, actually, but it was always going to happen.

“I can be a little bit head-strong sometimes and have a little bit of a fault where I can be non-forgiving so it needn’t have taken Mick (Harford) to twist my arm nearly break it to pick the phone up to Nathan, I should have done it before.

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Football is a small industry and, at the end of the day, there's a lot of people in it but everyone knows everyone, and you can't go in this game for very long with enemies.

“It was always going to be the case that we were going to meet and patch up those differences in some form.

“We didn't know when that would happen and we didn't know it would turn out like this, genuinely, it was just the right thing to do.

“Everyone knows that when Nathan left we had differences, every observer knows exactly what we thought about Nathan when he left for Stoke, we could hardly hide that at the time, it was well documented.

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“Nobody could argue with the move that Nathan wanted to make at the time, that was never in question, it was just the manner which Nathan left that we all felt disgruntled with at the time, it left a bit to be desired.

“But we simply couldn’t just take that and move forward, without that being repaired, so I’m telling you now that that situation has been repaired, not just with me, but with the board, this is a board decision.

“Nathan has gone to great lengths and humble lengths to make sure that has been fully repaired, so the fact remains though that Nathan is the best manager that we’ve had at Luton for decades.

“His three years with us previously were revolutionary, they enabled us to elevate our status as a club beyond our wildest dreams.

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“Where we were when he came in the first time around, was in a good place, but look at where we are right now, so we just need to dig deep and get out of the situation we’re in at the moment and we’ll be in a fantastic position.”

Luton opted to terminate former boss Graeme Jones’ contract by mutual consent last month, in a bid to reduce the cost base during the coronavirus pandemic.

Three backroom staff members also left in Gary Brabin, Inigo Idiakez and Imanol Etxeberria, with Town initially looking to Mick Harford to lead the side for the final nine games of the campaign.

However, when quizzed on the process of appointing Jones once more, Sweet confirmed it wouldn't affect the club's financial safety, saying: “It's taken a while, a number of weeks of engagement with Nathan over a period of time for us.

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“Firstly, to recover the position that we had, at the point of time when coronavirus hit us, we had a plan of keeping Graeme until the end of the season.

“I say until the end of the season, he had a long-term contract, but it would have taken a natural review period for us to restructure anything and everything within the club anyway.

“That's not to say that any decisions were made, so, when coronavirus hit us, then we considered this period as our close season.

“Graeme’s departure was partly made for that reason, because it was a review period, but also for financial reasons.

“Going forward, Nathan is part of that restructure.

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“Without going into the terms of the contract of any sort, we wouldn't take this on if we were increasing the liability of the operations of the club right now.”

Jones himself had been out of work since leaving Stoke in November, sacked by the Potters just nine months into his tenure.

He admitted that he hadn't chased the vacancy at Kenilworth Road when it opened up last month, but once approached, found it too inviting to turn down.

The Welshman added: "I've never applied for a job, I don't mean to say that conceitedly in any way, but we were in the process of speaking and building bridges, if you like, because I never had any peace with the decision to go to Stoke, if I'm honest.

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"So, I wanted to build those, and I built those up over a period of time.

"It was something within me, in terms of that, but when I was contacted and asked, ‘what do I think about it?’ I was excited, I wanted the job.

"It was a very important one, after what happened at Stoke, that I go to somewhere where I was comfortable.

"Without being disrespectful, I've had a number of offers to re-manage since November.

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"I was very encouraged by that, but I wanted to take time anyway and not rush into anything.

"I needed to go to a club where I felt comfortable. To be honest, I regard this, and I know this is cliched, but this is my club and this is where I'm most at home.

"Yes, I made an error in terms of how I left.

"Some people would say anyone would have done the same thing but, to be honest, when I look back on it, it's not regret that I went, it's the way that I went.

"Then, whatever happened, happened, but when I was approached, and when I spoke to Gary, then I was confident that I could come back and recreate the work that we did.

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"It's going to be tough in the short-term but this isn't just a short term job.

"Yes, we have to do the job in the short term, but I don't want to move my family for a short time.

"I want to be here. I want to resume that journey.

"That's my motivation for coming back, that's what I want to do.

"I do not want to come back here and for it to be a short term thing, I want to build on what we had here previously and that was my motivation to come back.

"So, when I didn't know there was a possibility to come back, of course I wanted to explore that and I was glad that I was able to do it."