Charlton Athletic find themselves in a bit of a pickle down at the bottom end of the Championship with their fine start to the season now being majorly undermined and some pressure growing on manager Nathan Jones.

Former Southampton boss Nathan Jones led Charlton back to the second-tier via the League One play-offs in the 2024-25 campaign and The Addicks rewarded the Welshman with a new five-year contract as a result.

Jones, who performed impressively at Luton Town before tough stints with Saints and Stoke City, was and does generally remain much-loved within the Charlton fanbase, but there are reservations about the sustainability of his style of football and whether it will continue to help Charlton kick on, having survived last season.

They began this season with three successive victories, including a win at the London Stadium against West Ham United, but the South Londoners are now winless in nine games as they plummet back down towards the bottom and the relegation places.

Having taken the lead but succumbed to a 3-1 defeat at home to fellow strugglers Norwich City at The Valley at the weekend, it could well be that Charlton soon opt to pull the trigger – and it would be a big decision given how well Jones has done for the club.

Fans are beginning to turn on Jones though, after the poor run of form which has seen the Londoners fall down the standings - this one believes it's time for the Welshman to depart, another supporter thinks that a 'hard conversation' needs to be had over Jones' future, whilst this one thinks he should've been dismissed before the 3pm kick-offs started on Saturday.

The next appointment would therefore have to be spot on, and we have looked at six potential candidates for Charlton to look at should Jones indeed depart.

Dave Challinor

Many Charlton fans may view it as a gamble to replace a promotion-winning and now Championship-stabilising coach in Nathan Jones with someone who has not yet managed in the second-tier and has, in fact, been a play-off semi-finalist and finalist in League One in the last couple of years, but Dave Challinor’s trajectory simply cannot be ignored.

In May, Challinor’s Stockport were beaten 4-1 by Bolton Wanderers in the League One play-off final at Wembley Stadium, marking his final game in charge of The Hatters.

Linked with Blackburn Rovers in the summer and now with Sheffield Wednesday, Challinor will be a coup for anyone who can lure him to the club.

His lack of Championship experience may be something that Charlton fans are concerned about, but he has not only immediately proven himself to be capable of managing up a level immediately throughout his managerial career; he is someone who has been destined for the second-tier for a while, and it is just about who that will be with.

Another potential positive to the appointment of Challinor would be that his style of football is a fair bit more proactive than that of Jones and that is something being cried out for down at The Valley.

Steve Cooper

Someone has recently been plying his trade abroad but who would again appear a bit of a coup for Charlton would be former Leicester City and Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper.

The 46-year-old Welshman, who coached both England at U16 and U17 level – winning the FIFA U17 World Cup with the latter, took charge of Swansea ahead of the 2019-20 season.

In his first managerial role at club level, and in his first season, Cooper led The Jacks to a sixth place finish as they reached the Championship play-off semi-finals final, only to be beaten by Brentford over two legs. A year later, Cooper had led Swansea to fourth but another defeat to Brentford, this time in the play-off final.

Having impressed in South Wales, Cooper opted to leave the club in July 2021 before being appointed Nottingham Forest boss in September 2021 and leading them to an unlikely promotion via the play-offs after he arrived when they were rock-bottom in the Championship.

Having kept the club up in the Premier League, Cooper eventually departed in December 2023 with Nottingham Forest having now had to make five managerial appointments in the less than three years since he departed the City Ground.

His next job saw him remain in the East Midlands with Leicester City. The Foxes were relegated after he was sacked in December again. In his 12 Premier League games in charge, Leicester won two. They won just four of their remaining 26 before then succumbing to Championship relegation the following season.

After leaving Leicester, Cooper took nearly a year out of the game before moving to Denmark to manage Brondby in the Danish Superliga.

His debut campaign saw Brondby finish fourth but succumb to a 3-1 extra-time defeat to FC Copenhagen in the play-off to play in the UEFA Europa Conference League. Brondby had only finished fourth on just two occasions in the last seven seasons.

Cooper has been away and continued to develop his tactical ideas and managerial capabilities with his more unique entrance into EFL management, via England youth setups, something that clearly served him well at Swansea initially and Charlton must believe they could be beneficiaries of his latest evolution.

Carlos Corberan

Carlos Corberan will be looking to rebuild his reputation quite soon and, while Charlton pursuing the former Valencia boss may well seem a bit ambitious, it could well be the ideal landing spot for the Spaniard.

Having coached in Cyprus at both Doxa Katokopias and then Ermis Aradippou, Carlos Corberan moved to England to become manager of Leeds United’s U23 side and implemented a similarly intense pressing style to that of Leeds boss at the time, Marcelo Bielsa.

Corberan took his first steps into a first-team managerial role in England by remaining in Yorkshire but taking charge of Huddersfield Town in the summer of 2020 ready for the 2020-21 Championship campaign.

Having finished 18th the season before, Corberan led Town to 20th in the table after an indifferent campaign that could have been different had they turned draws into wins in the second half of the season, with more than half of their final 13 games all finishing level.

His second season in West Yorkshire, though, saw Huddersfield surpass expectations as they finished third in the second-tier with that intense and energetic pressing style serving them so well.

The well-coached Huddersfield were eventually beaten by Nottingham Forest in a controversial play-off final at Wembley Stadium but he remained highly-rated and sought-after.

In fact, Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis poached Corberan a few weeks after he had departed Huddersfield in the summer of 2022 – taking him to his other club, Greek giants Olympiacos.

In Piraeus, Corberan lasted just 11 matches and just six or so weeks as Olympiacos unconvincingly edged their way into the group stages of the UEFA Europa League but lost their opening couple of games to Nantes and Freiburg before a 2-1 loss against Aris Thessaloniki prompted the trigger-happy Marinakis to part company with Corberan.

Despite that, Corberan rebuilt his reputation impressively back in England when he took charge of West Bromwich Albion a month later, leaving The Baggies ninth in a season that had seen them in the bottom three when he took over before getting into the play-offs in his only full season in charge the following campaign.

In December 2024, Corberan left Albion tucked comfortably inside the top six and the play-off places for Valencia – the club whereby he had come through as a goalkeeper before failing to make a professional playing career.

Valencia, a club that has been in crisis and civil war for an extremely long time now and one that continues to circle the drain in La Liga, massively improved in his first few months in charge as they propelled themselves from rock-bottom to 12th under Corberan, losing just two games after his appointment that season. Even last season, Los Che flirted with Europe in the second half of the campaign despite off-pitch irritations.

Supporters, bizarrely albeit perhaps not surprisingly, given the reputation, grew frustrated with Corberan, though, as a stooge of the club and that pressure told with a woeful start to this season seeing him sacked last month.

His reputation has been damaged as a result, albeit West Brom eventually finished ninth after his departure and, it could be argued, are still finding themselves ever since – while former Mexico boss Javier Aguirre has replaced Corberan but is yet to win thus far.

It is therefore fair to suggest Corberan’s jobs, while good at the time, might now look even better in retrospect and so it may be an ambitious appointment from Charlton but one that is more realistic after his tumultuous end at Mestalla and a need for stability and a reset.

Paul Heckingbottom

Paul Heckingbottom is another manager that was sacked earlier this season, with the former Sheffield United boss having departed struggling Preston North End.

Heckingbottom had done some good things initially while in charge at Deepdale and Preston fans have longed for the Lancastrians to sustain a genuine promotion challenge in the Championship.

Fourth as they headed into the New Year last season, Preston, for a second successive season under Heckingbottom, collapsed in the latter stages – something that can be mitigated against due to perhaps not having the depth of squad to sustain the form he had previously built.

This is a manager that won promotion to the Premier League and cultivated a Sheffield United side that did so in comfortable fashion – and therefore should perhaps be able to shake off a disappointing stint elsewhere, much like current Charlton boss Jones did and has.

Being sacked by a club lower in the table may be a reason for Charlton supporters to veer away from wanting or desiring Heckingbottom, but their own manager should be reason to realize that the 49-year-old Barnsley-born coach could still have a fair bit to give in the second-tier and his style may well be ideally suited to Jones’ squad but with a change of face presenting a bit of much-needed freshness.

Pablo Hernandez

Another curveball or at least one that may not immediately spring to mind would be luring former Leeds United and Swansea City attacker Pablo Hernandez to South London.

Pablo Hernandez, who became a cult hero with both Leeds and Swansea during his playing career, has gone into management back in the Community of Valencia and with Castellon.

As far back as June 2017, Pablo Hernandez became co-owner of Castellon alongside former Valencia teammate Angel Dealbert. The players had to depart in April 2019 having helped them gain promotion to the third-tier in their debut campaign – however, they have remained as shareholders.

Castellon are now majority owned by professional gambler Haralabos Voulgaris and the last few years have been extremely impressive as they mould themselves into perennial second-tier challengers.

The former Spain international coached Castellon’s B team for the 2024-25 campaign before initially becoming the caretaker manager of the first-team in September last year as Castellon went winless in their opening five matches.

Three successive wins to kick off his reign, Hernandez led Castellon to sixth place in the Segunda Division and to the play-offs, where they were eventually beaten by Almeria in the semi-finals due to a dramatic late turnaround down in Andalusia.

Hernadez was rewarded with the job on a permanent basis after that and Castellon have been superb at the start of this season with a 4-0 hammering of Sporting Gijon this weekend, maintaining their strong start and leaving them at the top-of-the-table with 26 points collected and 22 goals scored in their 11 matches thus far.

Brighton and Hove Albion are known for their recruitment and talent identification, as well as player development, and for them to trust a coach and a club with young starlets says a lot about the club – and that is the case with Hernandez and Castellon, with the Seagulls loaning summer signings Matias Orozco and Rodrigo Rego to Estadio Castalia.

Recognised by Brighton as someone who can nurture their best and brightest while also leading a club the size of Castellon to the play-offs and now top spot thus far this time around, Hernandez looks destined to be a managerial star.

The pull of the Championship and London would remain something that could lure Hernandez and Charlton could be the team to land a real coup – albeit his ties to Castellon could make it an awkward move.

Scott Parker

One that shouldn’t be awkward, like Hernandez, and a much more sensible fit on paper would be that of former Charlton midfielder and now three-time Premier League promotion-winning coach Scott Parker.

Parker, who came through the academy at Charlton and went on to make nearly 150 appearances for the club before moving to Chelsea, has been without a club since leaving Burnley in April, and it is somewhat surprising that no Championship promotion hopeful sought to bring him in over the summer.

That is because Parker has now repeatedly proven himself to be capable of tipping strong squads into the top-flight with his robust style of football.

There are reservations about Parker at a higher level, having generally struggled whenever he has managed in the Premier League, but he made it clear that a talented squad will often have more than enough for promotion when guided by his defensive nous as a coach – as shown at all three of Fulham, AFC Bournemouth and a Burnley side that broke records defensively, conceding just 16 goals in 46 games a couple of years ago.

That would therefore be a concern, really, for Charlton supporters because their issue is not necessarily not being a tight at the back but more a case of badly struggling going forward.

It may also be the case that Parker himself views himself at a promotion challenger, rather than a relegation battler, but a project could be sold that a slight evolution at Charlton could see them push into being someone who contends for the top eight and the play-off places.