Born in Gateshead, Jones began his career in 1991 with North Shields, then moving to Bridlington Town in 1992, before earning a £10,000 move to Doncaster Rovers. He then joined Wigan Athletic in 1996, after scoring 30 goals in 3 years at Doncaster. He became an instant success with the Latics, scoring 31 league goals in his first season, which remains a Wigan record to this day. He also got a total of 4 hat-tricks this season. Jones went on to score 18 goals in the next two seasons, before joining Scottish side St Johnstone, on a £100,000 deal. Whilst at Wigan he also helped them win the 1998–99 Football League Trophy, for the final of which he was an unused substitute. Jones scored on his debut for St Johnstone, but his time with Saints was disrupted by injury. He returned to England in 2002 to sign for Southend United. He joined Boston United in 2003, before signing for Bury in 2004, where he scored on his debut against Yeovil Town. He also had injury problems at Bury, and after only 3 appearances in 6 months, he returned to Scotland to join Clyde. After scoring the winning goal on his debut, he found the net on one more occasion for the Bully Wee, before he joined Hamilton Academical in July 2006. Jones was forced to retire in March 2006 due to injury, and became assistant manager at Accies.
Coaching career
In March 2007, Jones joined the coaching staff of then-League One side Swansea City, becoming the new assistant manager of recently appointed head coach Roberto Martínez. He followed Martínez to Wigan Athletic in June 2009, where he spent a period of four seasons working alongside Martínez. 2012 saw Jones linked to the vacant managerial position at former side Swansea, now in the Premier League, after the departure of Brendan Rodgers, who left to take charge of European giants Liverpool. However, talks between Jones and the club broke down, with Michael Laudrup subsequently taking over at the Liberty Stadium. Championship club Burnley later expressed their interest in appointing Jones as their new manager as successor to Eddie Howe, in which Martínez admitted he was "not worried" with the recent speculation; no move was materialised and the job went to Sean Dyche. In July 2013, Jones relocated once again to Everton, continuing as assistant manager to Martínez, after Wigan were relegated from the Premier League. He left upon Martínez's sacking in May 2016, before being announced as Martínez's assistant coach of the Belgium national team in August, working alongside former Arsenal player Thierry Henry. After huge speculation regarding Jones' future as Belgium coach, having been linked with various managerial positions within previous months, on 1 August 2018, it was announced that Jones would join newly relegated Championship club West Bromwich Albion as assistant coach to recently appointed head coach Darren Moore, which resulted in him leaving his position with Belgium, after a two-year spell, with this move meaning that this was the first time that Jones had not coached alongside Martínez for the first time since the beginning of his coaching career in 2007. On 10 March 2019, he was relieved from his duties with immediate effect, shortly following the dismissal of Moore, after a negative run of results.
Managerial career
Luton Town
On 2 May 2019, it was confirmed that Jones had agreed to become the new permanent manager of newly promoted Championship club Luton Town, signing onto a three-year-contract, taking effect from 7 May. Jones replaced caretaker managerMick Harford, who had been in charge of the club from January whilst they were in League One, going on to finish as divisional champions, after their previous manager Nathan Jones left to take charge of Stoke City in the Championship. During the off-season, Jones brought in six new additions to his squad, including Martin Cranie, Callum McManaman, Ryan Tunnicliffe, Brendan Galloway, Simon Sluga and Jacob Butterfield. His first game as a manager came on 2 August, a 3–3 thriller against Middlesbrough. However, by the end of 2019, Luton were sat 23rd in the Championship, sitting in the relegation zone. On 24 April 2020, with football suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic and having achieved only 10 league wins all season, leaving the club lying in 23rd and in the relegation zone, Jones left his post by mutual consent.
