AFC Rushden & Diamonds are delighted to announce that 20-year-old striker Will Jones has returned to the Club ahead of the 2023/24 season.
Diamonds fans will be very familiar with Will. Spotted by Andy Peaks at Academy trials as a 12-year-old, he progressed through the age groups before making his first team debut for the Diamonds in December 2019. His real breakthrough season came in 2021/22, making 43 appearances – mostly from the bench – as the Club narrowly missed out on the play-offs at Step 3.
At the end of that season, Will went in search of regular first team starts and joined United Counties Premier Division South side Bugbrooke St. Michael at Step 5. Playing alongside Will Glennon, he finished the season with 12 goals in 32 appearances.
Will is a player that Manager Chris Nunn has admired for a long time and he jumped at the chance to bring him back to Diamonds. “Being honest, a year ago when he was at Rushden I was trying to get him to join me at Kempston. He’s far from the finished article and he’s shown a real willingness to want to come back. We can get more out of Will and we’re going to push him as much as we can to help him realise his potential. This is the type of player we need, young, talented and committed to giving 100%. Every now and then you speak to players and you can really feel their hunger and this was one of those occasions. Will’s perfect for us.”
Will Jones spoke exclusively to AFCRDTV regarding his return to the Club and was delighted to be back: “I’ve been speaking to Chris for a year or so and I felt like this opportunity was something I couldn’t turn down. I had a great time here previously but the amount of football I was playing made me move away. Last year was massive for me, I had one of the best years of football in my career so far and I was enjoying myself, playing with a smile on my face and full credit to the guys at Bugbrooke for how they’ve looked after me. I feel like now is the right time to come back and push myself as hard as I can.”
We will shortly be re-opening player sponsorship for the new season and more details will be announced on this in due course. If you would like to sponsor or reserve a player for sponsorship, please contact Alex Raspin: alex.raspin@afc-diamonds.com.
