Exclusive: Charlton defender Lloyd Jones on Liverpool schooling and footballing journey to The Valley

BY RICHARD CAWLEY

richard@slpmedia.co.uk

It must be rare for any footballer to look back on their career and not have any regrets. And Lloyd Jones is the first to admit that he would have done at least a couple of things differently.

The 27-year-old centre-back was signed as a 15-year-old schoolboy by Liverpool in May 2011, his hometown club Plymouth Argyle receiving £150,000 in compensation.

But out of the patchwork of loans and three permanent moves before he arrived at Charlton Athletic this summer, it is the time he spent at Luton Town that the former England U20 international that leaves him with a tinge of regret.

Jones had captained Liverpool’s reserve team and worked with coaches like Brendan Rodgers, Steve Cooper, Michael Beale, Neil Critchley, Alex Inglethorpe and Rodolfo Borrell, who went on to become Pep Guardiola’s number two at Manchester City.

So when the defender joined the Hatters, in League Two at the time, he expected lift-off. Instead he played just six matches for them in the space of three seasons as they won successive promotions to the Championship.

“I just wanted to go and play at Luton,” Jones told the South London Press. “I went into a winning team and I wasn’t the fittest I could have been. I didn’t help myself. But when the team goes on an unbeaten run, there is not a lot you can say about it.

“Because I had been out on loan at quite a young age, and I had done alright, I felt like 22 was old.

“I wish I knew what I knew now. I look back and 22 is not old at all, really. “There was a bit of frustration at not playing but, at the same time, why would you change a winning team that ends up winning League One?

“You have seen what they [Luton] have done – they’re in the Premier League and are a really good team.

“The frustration was that wherever I had gone out on loan, I played all the games when I had been fit – so it was a different scenario for me to take in.

“Hindsight is a really good thing, but I feel like I’m on the up now. That’s what is important – not going backwards.”

When Jones signed for the Reds he had to keep talks a closely-guarded secret.

“It killed me because I was at school at the time,” he said. “Until it was done, it wasn’t worth saying anything. Because you would have looked like an idiot if it didn’t come off.

“It was tough moving away at such a young age but it was every kid’s dream.

“When I went there, I was going through growth spurts and stuff. I think they signed me off the back of the fact that I can defend and head a ball miles!

“In the end, I probably switched and got better on the ball. I developed massively technically within a space of a year, and that’s when I started moving up through the age groups.

“At 17 to 18, I was absolutely flying. And then when I did my knee out on loan (at Blackpool in September 2015), I started to go back down – I found that hard to get my mojo back.

“Until I was 20, I loved every minute of it. But the last two years [at Liverpool] were a bit of a drag really. I wish I played more than I did.”

Luton loaned Jones to Northampton in January 2020 but he did not feature when they won promotion via the League Two play-offs.

Covid-19 forced football to shut down with the final standings determined on a points-per-game basis.

Jones was a free agent that summer but rejects the suggestion he did not feature in case he jeopardised a transfer elsewhere.

“Confidence is big thing in football, and mine was shot,” he said. “I played more in the Championship for Luton than I did for them in League One.

“I hadn’t lived at home for more than 10 years. I went back home and realised what makes me happy. I found the answer out about four months later – that I don’t care about anything else, apart from playing on the Saturday.”

Jones re-signed for Northampton that December and made 27 appearances before joining Cambridge United, who had won promotion to England’s third tier.

He won all four of their Player of the Season accolades for 2022-23 as they just managed to claw their way out of relegation trouble.

“We started the season really well last year,” said Jones.“It was mental. We had so many injuries that we didn’t know what was going on for about four months. We found ourselves in a really rocky situation.

“It says loads about the manager and the group of lads there, because it was a really good changing room. We stuck together. On paper we weren’t a bottom-four team to go down, but we were close.”

Jones’ desire to play his part saw him try to manage his way through a groin problem in the run-in but he ended up missing the final six fixtures.

“It was an overuse injury,” he explained. “I kept trying to come back and play on it. I ended up playing three games and then I was in too much pain.

“I had surgery in the off-season. It’s taken me a bit of time to get over the injury, but I just want to get as fit as I can now.

“I have never really doubted myself when I’m playing and I have been fit. It’s more that I have had to show people – because I have never strung a set of games together due to different situations. 

“My target is to get as high as I can and to fulfil some potential.”

Jones popped up with four goals last season and so his aerial dominance will be demanded in the opposition box, as well as Charlton’s area.

“I need to get better at attacking set plays and I managed to do that last season,” he said. “Hopefully I can fire the goals in this season for Charlton. Set plays – although not always pretty – are a big part of the game.

“The manager wants to play a really attacking style of football that’s exciting to watch. I understand what he’s trying to do. It’s a new formation for me. Let’s see how we get on in the first few games of the season.”

PICTURES: KEITH GILLARD