David Ronald Jones (born 17 August 1956) is an English former footballer and manager who was most recently the manager of Hartlepool United. Jones played for Everton, Coventry and Preston North End as a defender. In 1995, he became the manager of Stockport County, guiding the team to a League Cup semi-final and automatic promotion to the second tier of English football in 1997. He left Stockport to become the manager of Southampton in the Premier League, where he stayed for over 100 games until he was suspended by the club in January 2000 after his arrest on charges of child abuse. When the case came to court the judge recorded a not guilty verdict. Jones later spoke of his bitterness about the handling of the case and claimed it was the cause of his father's death, who had died shortly after the allegations became public. In 2001, Jones became the manager of Wolverhampton Wanderers, guiding the club to promotion to the Premier League in the 2002–03 season, though they were relegated the following season and he was dismissed by Wolves in November 2004. Jones had a six-year spell in charge of Cardiff City between 2005 and 2011. They reached the FA Cup final in 2008, losing 1–0 to Portsmouth. Cardiff lost the 2010 Championship Play-off Final 3–2 against Blackpool. After failing to achieve promotion with Cardiff, losing to Reading the following season in a play-off semi-final, Jones was dismissed by the club on 30 May 2011. He was appointed manager of Sheffield Wednesday on 1 March 2012, guiding the club to finishing second in League One, thus gaining automatic promotion to the Championship. Jones was dismissed by Wednesday in December 2013. After a three-year absence from management, he was appointed manager at Hartlepool United in January 2017. Playing career Jones started his professional career with Everton in his home city of Liverpool. He played as a defender with the team for seven years, during which time he represented England at youth and under-21 level. He left Everton to play for Coventry City in 1979 for a transfer fee of £275,000 – after three seasons he picked up a knee injury which threatened to end his football career. After recovering from this injury, he played two further seasons for Seiko in Hong Kong and one season for Preston North End before retiring. Jones first went to Hong Kong on 2