Dave Jones

Manager 1997-2000

Started off in a difficult position, following in the wake of the disappointment of the departure of Graeme Souness and Lawrie McMenemy.  He joined as a promising young manager with fairly limited experience in lower league football with Stockport.  None of the Saints really knew what to expect.

He started off slowly, bringing two Stockport players with him, left-back Lee Todd and goalkeeper Paul Jones, while selling the popular goalkeeper Maik Taylor.  Paul Jones started off poorly as did Todd and early results were very poor.

Dave Jones soon showed how shrewd he can be with the signings of proven senior professionals such as Carlton Palmer, David Hirst and John Beresford.  The form of these players along with promising young striker Kevin Davies (Graeme Souness' last signing before leaving) made sure that Saints finished comfortably in Jones first season.

Hopes were high for Jones' second season in charge, however, a number of injuries together with the loss of Kevin Davies to Blackburn and poor form from most of the Saints players resulted in an abysmal first half to the season.

Jones let the out of form Palmer go to Nottingham Forest and continued to bring in experienced pros throughout the season such as Mark Hughes, Stuart Ripley, Scott Hiley, Patrick Colleter and David Howells.  He also brought in talented youngsters, James Beattie, Scott Marshall, Hassan Kachloul and Marian Pahars.  Some of the new arrivals made a big impact in the second half of the season and fine form saw Saints scrape to safety on the final day of the season.

For Jones' third season in charge he brought in more young talent in Dean Richards, Luis Boa Morte and the re-signing of Kevin Davies (in a swap deal which saw Egil Ostenstad, who had a poor 1998/1999 season, go to Blackburn in a straight exchange).  He also seized the opportunity to bring in the experienced midfielder Trond Soltvedt from Coventry City and versatile Midfielder/Defender Jo Tessem.

The season started well, but hit a rough patch in the 2nd third.  Although he had built a squad capable of doing well in the Premiership Jones was tactically nieve and had fallen out with a couple of the senior pros (i.e. Beresford & LeTissier).

A run of bad results, poor performances from the players and baffling team selections slowly turned the fans against the manager and made it look like a matter of time before Dave Jones would be replaced.  As the fans began to discuss who would be the next manager, the club announced that Dave Jones would be placed on a 12 month paid leave of absence to allow him to concentrate on fighting child abuse charges that had been brought against him.  He was replaced by Glenn Hoddle.