Hatters captain hails return of Nathan Jones to Luton as a 'positive move'

Town captain Sonny Bradley has described Nathan Jones’ return as manager for a second spell in charge of the Hatters as a ‘positive move' for the club.

The centre half was signed by Jones during his first stint at Luton boss, agreeing to join on a free transfer in July 2018 after leaving Plymouth Argyle.

Bradley was then six months into his stint at Kenilworth Road when Jones controversially opted to leave, heading to Stoke City, who were then a division higher than the Hatters in the Championship.

After being sacked in November last year, Jones found himself back with Luton last week, replacing Graeme Jones, who had his contract mutually terminated in April.

Bradley admitted it was a shock to learn of the news in the manner he did, but was enthused about the comeback of his former manager.

Speaking to the press this afternoon, he said: “For me, it’s a positive return, it’s a positive move for the football club, it makes sense.

"Obviously when he left initially, it was disappointing, he left at a time when the club was moving in a positive direction, we were looking up and unfortunately he left.

“I think I’m in the same boat as a lot of people who were disappointed at the football club, but he’s back and the boys have taken it really well.

"It was quite interesting how he did return, we had a Zoom meeting last week with Gary Sweet (chief executive) and Paul Watson (general operations manager) and it was just a catch up.

"Half way through the call, Gary said, ‘look boys, basically, moving forward, we’re going to need a new manager.’

“The boys were a bit like, ‘what’s going on?’ Then all of a sudden, it just said at the top of the screen, 'Nathan Jones has joined the chat' and out of nowhere, Nathan was on the screen.

“I could see everyone’s faces, a few of the boys were surprised, big smiles on everyone’s faces and I think a few of the boys were really happy.

“Nathan's back in the building, he’s had two days with us and it's been really positive.

“I know what he brings to the table, I know how it’s going to change and I know the energy that he will bring.

"So I’m sure in the coming weeks, things will step up, as he tries to bring back his playing style.

“There’s plenty of energy and plenty of positives now, we want to get these games finished and we want to stay up.”

Jones only has a limited amount of to get his instructions over to the Town squad with the Championship potentially starting in under three weeks and Luton still not back in full contact training, split into smaller groups during their initial return.

Bradley believes the senior players within the group will have to do their bit to help the manager get his ideas across, adding: "There hasn’t been too many sessions and all of last week and today, we’re training in groups of five at the minute.

"Even with Nathan coming in, you can't really change too much, we’re limited to what we can do.

"I think the manager will be following guidelines that the EFL have set, the club have to follow them and I think he’ll have to plan his sessions around that and see what we can do.

"But there’s a lot of boys around the club that know Nathan’s philosophy and we know the way he wants to work.

"So it’s just about the senior boys at the club who have worked with Nathan in the past, I think we have an obligation to almost project what he wants to do and help him out in that way.

"The sessions right now, I don’t have an answer to how many boys can train at once and in what groups, but I’m sure now with the season fast approaching we’ll have to find that out, step up and make that change."