Jones is aiming to leave a lasting legacy

Dave Jones had been wavering over whether to accept the offer to succeed Gary Megson at Hillsborough.

The 55-year-old had served his time in the third tier with Stockport County almost 15 years earlier.

Since then, he had gone on to manage in the Premier League, led his team out at Wembley before an FA Cup final and come within a whisker of taking Cardiff City into the top flight for the first time in almost half-a-century.

A return to League One, therefore, did not really appeal.

Mandaric, though, was unwilling to take ‘no’ for an answer and started to sell Wednesday to Jones. The history, the support and, above all, the potential of the club.

Speaking to the Yorkshire Post while sitting in the home dugout at Hillsborough, Jones explains: “It was Milan who persuaded me. I wasn’t sure whether to come here.

“That is the honest truth. I’d done it (League One) in my Stockport days. I thought I’d earned the right to be in a higher division.

“But then, once I came round and saw the place, my breath was taken away. The chairman said, ‘Dave, you are a football person and it doesn’t matter where you are’. He was right.

“Milan also said, ‘If you are as good as what you say you are then you won’t be in this division for long anyway’. Again, he had a point. So, I decided to come to Sheffield and I am so glad I did. Not just for me but also the chairman, who took a massive gamble that paid off.”

Wednesday were third in League One and fresh from beating Steel City rivals United when Mandaric acted – sacking Megson and bringing in a new manager.

To those in the wider football world, it was, as Jones admits, something of a “gamble” in that the Owls were still firmly in the promotion race. A new man at the helm could rock the boat.

What was also evident, however, to anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of the game was that in appointing Jones, Wednesday had given themselves a better than evens chance of success by bringing in a manager with such an impressive pedigree.

Three months later, such thinking was borne out as the Owls pipped their neighbours to second place courtesy of a truly stunning run-in that yielded 32 points from his 12 games in charge.

A 2-0 victory over Wycombe Wanderers in front of 38,082 fans at Hillsborough was the crowning moment and a day that saw Mandaric – and Jones – vindicated. It is also an afternoon neither man is likely to forget in a hurry.

“I spoke to their manager, Gary Waddock, as we came out,” said Jones. “He was in awe of it. I’d seen it before here, to a certain degree, when I brought teams here. But nothing like that.

“Gary came up to me and said with a big smile on his face, ‘This is unbelievable, just like our place on a Saturday’.

“Wycombe knew that, on the day, they could have played their best football but it wouldn’t have mattered. We were never, ever going to let it go.”

Adding to the sense of sheer, unadulterated joy as the Hillsborough pitch quickly disappeared under the feet of thousands of overjoyed supporters was the knowledge that success had come at the expense of their biggest rivals.

For Jones, pipping United to second place had been an unexpected achievement.

“When I first spoke to the chairman, we talked about securing a play-off spot,” says the Owls manager. “Sheffield United had two games in hand and also had a good number of points lead.

“But then, as things started to unfold and we started to claw back the points, we got a bit of belief.”

The race swung firmly Wednesday’s way came on the penultimate weekend as their 2-1 win at Brentford preceded United kicking off at home to Stevenage live on Sky.

Jones recalls: “I didn’t come back on the coach (from Brentford) but I was told there was a lot of people who couldn’t watch the United v Stevenage game, even though Sky was on.

“It was a nervy time, even when Stevenage went 2-0 up. We all knew United had a bit about them so when it then got back to 2-2, there were a few nails being bitten.

“But once that result came in, I knew we wouldn’t lose the last game – not with all those fans behind us. We could have played any team that day, and we would have won.”

Wednesday’s triumph meant Jones was afforded the luxury of being able to watch the play-offs from afar as United lost out in heart-breaking fashion to Huddersfield Town in the final on penalties.

He said: “I have been in the play-offs a lot of times. I’ve won it and I’ve lost it. It is not a nice place to be, certainly when you go out on penalties.

“Although United are our arch-rivals, it would have been nice for them to come up. Though, maybe that is unfair as it sounds like I am knocking Huddersfield. And I’m not.

“But the Sheffield derby is special. Danny (Wilson, Blades manager) is also a good friend of mine. Having said that, did I lose any sleep? No. My priority is this football club. I am sure Danny would have been the same if they had won.

“The same thing happened to me at Cardiff with Swansea (when the Bluebirds were pipped to automatic promotion in 2011) and it isn’t easy.”

Wednesday’s promotion means Jones will this weekend return to a division he knows well. Last season apart, the former Everton defender spent 10 of the previous 11 campaigns plying his trade in the second tier so knows just how competitive the Championship can be.

He said: “The Championship is a big division. Only three or four have never been in the Premier League. Clubs are spending millions right now to try and get that ‘Holy Grail’.

“So, you have to have that extra bit. The grit, the fight and getting the players in who want to fight.

“Every game we play will be a hard battle. The time you start to think, ‘We can get a win there and a draw there...’ is the time you should go down the bookies because you are an expert. And one thing I’m not is an expert.”

Jones may not be willing to describe himself as an “expert” but right now Wednesday fans are unlikely to share that belief. Promotion has seen to that. The challenge now, of course, is to keep pushing the club forward and it is one Jones readily embraces.

“I have a great life,” he said. “I do something I really enjoy. I try to instil that in the players. I know from my own career that players always moan and moan. I was a moaner. But they have the best life.

“My job here is to leave a legacy. Everywhere I have been, I have been very fortunate. I have left good clubs in a far better state than when I arrived. That is what I love doing, building.

“I want to take this team into the division it deserves. But to do so, we have to earn that right. For all that great history, the club got relegated.

“It happened to Manchester United once. We earned the right to be successful last season. And if we want to go further, we have to do the same again. ”

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