Gary Rowett: Former Stoke City manager urges fantastic owners and fans to back Nathan Jones after suffering own difficult start

Gary Rowett: Former Stoke City manager urges fantastic owners and fans to back Nathan Jones after suffering own difficult start
Former Stoke City manager Gary Rowett has urged the clubs owners and fans to back new boss Nathan Jones after suffering his own difficult start at the bet365 Stadium.Rowett was dismissed by the Potters after less than eight months in charge earlier this month and was succeeded by Jones, who left League One high-flyers Luton to take up challenge of guiding Stoke back to the Premier League.However, Jones suffered defeats in both his opening two matches, first losing at Brentford in the Championship before Shrewsbury knocked Stoke out the FA Cup by winning their third-round replay 3-2 on Tuesday evening.3

The beginning of Jones’ time at Stoke has not gone to plan

Stoke actually led 2-0 with less than 20 minutes of the match remaining, before the visitors scored three times in a 10-minute spell to secure a remarkable comeback victory at the bet365 Stadium.And Rowett, who went five games before guiding Stoke to a win at the beginning of the season, wants the clubs owners and fans to support Jones throughout his early career as manager.Speaking to talkSPORT, Rowett said: I can understand the fans feeling disappointed with this season and last season, but I think what has happened there is its all gone into one melting pot of frustration and that frustration has bubbled out into something thats not particularly helpful right now for anyone.Nathan (Jones) will find that he needs support and needs to get through this early period, and hell need the fans backing. I think the club really have to stick together at this time.3

Stoke fans wanted Rowett out towards the end of his reign

Sometimes you dont get what you want, you dont get the performance you want, and thats when you need to have a little bit of faith and be a bit patient.Rowett knows just what Jones will be going through after his shaky start as Stoke boss, having gone through a difficult start of his own after being appointed the clubs manager in May following their relegation from the Premier League.I think the difficult bit when you go into a club like Stoke is the expectation, not only from within but also from outside, he continued. Its almost like just because youve spent money and just because youve been in the Premier League youre going to walk the division.As we know in the Championship, very few teams actually come down after being out of it for a long time and go straight back up.We had a really difficult start. We had a lot of players who felt like they shouldnt be playing in the Championship, so it was quite difficult early on to settle the mentality of the team down.And then results actually picked up, and in our last 17 Championship games we only lost three – but we just drew too many.That was the challenge; we became very solid and very hard to beat but we just didnt win enough games for the expectation level.Therefore, with the expectation of being in the top six, any time we lost a game it felt twice as bad as anywhere else Id ever been.I understood the risk going into a job like that needing to have instant success.Rowett was appointed with the view of securing Stoke an immediate return to the top flight, as the club ended their decade-long stay in the Premier League with relegation at the end of last season.However, he also had plans to build for the long-term at Stoke – something the clubs owners also wanted.One of the reasons I went into Stoke was because theyve got fantastic owners and there has been great stability there over the years, Rowett added.3

Stoke chairman Peter Coates made it clear Rowett’s object was ‘returning Stoke to the Premier League as soon as possible’

And it is actually quite hard to find in the Championship a club where you feel you might have a chance to build something.Ironically it was the shortest Ive ever been at any of the clubs, so it didnt work out that way.Discussing a return to the game, the former Burton, Birmingham and Derby boss insists he will be back before too long.I had three months out of the game after Birmingham, and thats the only time Ive had out in the last 15 years Ive been coaching.I have to say its the only time you really enjoy yourself.I will come back in, Im sure, and Ill just have to wait for the next opportunity.

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