T. G. Jones

Football manager infobox
playername= T.G. Jones


fullname = Thomas George Jones
height =
nickname =
dateofbirth = birth date|1917|10|12|df=y
cityofbirth = Connah's Quay
countryofbirth = Wales
dateofdeath = death date and age|2004|01|3|1917|10|12|df=y
cityofdeath =
countryofdeath =
currentclub =
clubcrest =
clubnumber =
position = Sweeper
years = 1934-1936
1936-1950
1950-1956
clubs = Wrexham
Everton
Pwllheli
caps(goals) = 06 (0)
0178 (5)
nationalyears = 1938-1950
1939-1945
nationalteam = Wales
Wales "(wartime)"
nationalcaps(goals) = 017 (??)
011 (??)
manageryears = 1950-56
1956-1967
1968
managerclubs = Pwllheli
Bangor City
Rhyl

Thomas George "TG" Jones was born in Connah's Quay on 12 October 1917. He was a footballer for Everton and Wales.

Jones played at centre half but despite his position he was an apparently effortless, skillful and assured footballer. He passed the ball in the same way that Franz Beckenbauer would do later. He was renowned for his sporting behaviour. Stanley Matthews, Tommy Lawton, Joe Mercer and Dixie Dean each cited Jones as the greatest player that they ever saw.

He was signed from Wrexham for £3,000 in 1936. He won a Football League First Division champions medal in only his second full season at Everton in 1938-39, but this truly outstanding Everton team was stopped by the Second World War. Jones worked in a factory during the war but he resumed his career for Everton in 1946. He was so highly rated that A.S. Roma successfully bid £15,000 for him, a large sum in those days, but foreign exchange regulations stopped the transfer. Everton were still short of cash and so transferred Tommy Lawton to Chelsea F.C. and Joe Mercer to Arsenal. These deals were not only blows to the Everton team, but to him personally, as he had been best man at both their weddings.)

A club director falsely accused Jones of feigning injury and his appearances thereafter were sporadic. (Jones's injury was actually severe enough to put him in hospital for four months.) Once the relations with the manager Theo Kelly became so bad that he was even not picked for the reserve team, and played secretly for Hawarden Grammar Old Boys. After Kelly stopped being manager, Jones became club captain in 1949. Finally, in January 1950, Everton agreed to his release. He made 178 appearances for Everton, scoring five goals.

Jones won 17 caps for Wales and eleven caps in war-time internationals.

After Jones left Everton he played non league football for Pwllheli and became their part-time manager. He also ran a hotel. In 1962, he was manager of Bangor City. After winning the Welsh Cup, the team beat beat Napoli 2-0 in the home leg in the European Cup Winners Cup but lost 1-3 in Italy. With no away-goal rule, Bangor lost the replay 3-1. Later, Jones ran a newsagent's shop in north Wales.

He was elected a Millennium Giant by Everton FC in 2000, one of the first eleven from the club's long history to be so honoured. [http://www.evertonfc.com/history/thomas-george-jones.html]

TG Jones died January 3 2004, a gentleman to the end.

References

*http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article37808.ece "T. G. Jones Sophisticated centre-half dubbed 'The Prince of Wales'" - The Independent Obituary published 14 January, 2004.