The Big Interview: Dave Jones

It's now three years since Jones was last in charge of a football club and he's turned 60 while sitting on the sidelines,

It's been family time for the Liverpool-born former defender, since he left Sheffield Wednesday on 1 December 2013, and he's back living in the West Midlands.

He kept on his home in Bridgnorth he's had since his time in the Molineux hot-seat, but he gets the feeling he's getting under wife Ann's feet.

The 19 months he spent at the Wednesday helm was his shortest spell as a boss after longer-term projects that also saw him lead Stockport County, Southampton and Cardiff City.

Wolves, from January 2001 to November 2004, represented the happiest time of his career and he won his only trophy, the Championship play-offs, with the club.

He'd previously got Stockport promoted from League One as runner-up and, later on, repeated the trick with Wednesday as well as taking Cardiff to an FA Cup final.

He had Premier League experience prior to his arrival in the Black Country, a successful spell at Southampton which was cut short after what turned out to be false accusations of child abuse.

Wolves was a clean slate where he would excel again and etch his name into club folklore, as the first to take them into the re-branded top flight.

His career has stalled on 825 games but if you count the five years he spent as youth boss at Stockport before he took the reins in 1995 as competitive fixtures, takes him into the '1,000 club.'

He said: "It's nice to be back, we did like living here over those years and two of my daughters are still in the area.

"I'm on the lookout for work in football and being in the Midlands is pretty handy for me to get anywhere. I've done some consultancy work in the game since my last job.

"I took a bit of time out, to begin with, and I needed that after over 1,000 games under my belt, but it's in my blood. I think my wife is getting fed up of me being at home now.

"But it has to be right, there was one club I spoke to that just didn't want to go anywhere, didn't want to be promoted or, obviously, relegated. There was no point in that.

"I haven't picked a division and said 'that's where I want to be,' it's all about where you feel comfortable. There has to be a light at the end of the tunnel.

"At all of the clubs I've ever been at, I've built for the future, that's what I do. Some clubs are established and just want to stay as that.

"It has to be a project for me. I've been lucky in my career, I've left every team in a far better shape than when I first went. With the right opportunity, I don't see why that shouldn't continue."

Jones has come 'home' to a vastly-different Wolves from the club he knew, after a multi-million takeover by Chinese billionaires Fosun International.

Kenny Jackett, Walter Zenga and now Paul Lambert have all operated as head coach in less than a year after previous owner Steve Morgan sold up.

Zenga and super-agent Jorge Mendes utilised the European market to build a new-look squad of 30, which Lambert quipping "there's more people than in Ben Hur."

Among them is Portugal striker Ivan Cavaleiro, who arrived for a club-record fee from French side Monaco but has been in stuttering form.

Jones said: "It's still a new era for Wolves. I'm not too sure what Sir Jack (Hayward, deceased former owner) would be thinking about what's happened, but it will always be a great club.

"There's a lot of Chinese investment in the game now and that means foreign coaches and, of course, more foreign players.

"It's a Premier League club, but whether they have got Premier League players is another thing. Even some of them are dropping down a division.

"I find it crazy when teams are throwing silly money around outside of the top flight and it doesn't guarantee anything. A lot of clubs have done that in the past and are still where they were.

"You just hope, wherever that is, that youth still gets a chance. Some want instant success and maybe they haven't got the time for youngsters to develop.

"It's quite sad, really, because a huge part of the English game is to bring players through to play in the top divisions.

"That was always my criteria, at whatever club I've been to, because there were no vast amounts of money around. Sometimes, I've been developing players to sell.

"It's good for the fans, because there's nothing better for supporters than to see people in their team who have an affinity for the area, rather than taking the money and running after a while.

"I remember playing Arsenal when I was at Wolves and they had one British player on the pitch. I thought that was a shame then."

Jones will always wonder what could have been had chief executive Jez Moxey and Sir Jack, who died in January 2015, backed him with a transfer war chest that summer of 2003.

Wolves were there on merit but came back down with a whimper in bottom place, albeit only on goal difference from Leicester City and Leeds United.

Better form came in the second half of the season, including the shock 1-0 win over Manchester United at Molineux on 17 January 2004 thanks to Kenny Miller's goal.

But Jones believes it made Moxey and Sir Jack wiser when Mick McCarthy restored them to the Premier League in 2009, where they remained for three seasons until 2012.

Jones said: "The club had spent 18 years trying to get there and, talking to Sir Jack and Jez about it many years after, they knew they had got it wrong.

"It was probably the biggest mistake they had made. To wait that long to reach the Premier League and not invest when it happened was a bit strange.

"Mick benefitted when he took them back up, because they invested a bit more than they had done before. I know they went down again, but they had learned their lesson.

"As a manager, you always think you can do it, no matter who the players are and, to be fair, we only just missed out.

"If we had got the players at the start of the season that we signed in January, we'd have been OK. The start killed us. The run we had in the second half of the campaign was top-half form.

"Along the way, we had some great results, like Manchester United at home which was a great memory. The club is filled with them. I hope they get back there one day.

"The Championship is probably among the top six or seven leagues in the world and I've always believe it's the hardest to get out of. The Premier League is the hardest to stay in.

"I remember Sir Jack asking me when we went up 'what would it take to win this league?' I told him even he didn't have enough money!"