PUT IT THIS WAY, I WAS NOT GOING TO MOVE! Joe Jordan on losing his teeth, playing for Milan and THAT clash with Gattuso
Joe Jordan gently ran a finger along his front teeth and explained how the originals had been kicked clean out during his first appearance in a Leeds shirt. ‘I was playing for the reserves and diving for a header at goal,’ said Jordan. ‘The boy’s caught me, a complete accident, and taken two of them out, roots and all.
‘They weren’t smashed up. I got them. I kept them for a while. I went to the dentist, but they couldn’t do anything. I lost two more when I headed somebody by accident. It never bothered me. You get used to it. I should’ve had them replaced when I stopped playing but never did.’
Jordan would have made a fortune from image rights had there been such a thing in the days he tormented goalkeepers and central defenders with his aggression and fearless nature.
The missing teeth added a layer of intimidation and earned him a role in an amusing Heineken ad campaign for the 1978 World Cup.
He still has the original artwork used in the poster where a glass of lager refreshes the parts other beers cannot reach and a sparkling new smile appears.
Jordan was, for a generation of fans, one of the most instantly recognisable footballers and yet has proved over time to be far more than just a hard man.
He became one of the strong and silent men of the touchline, a deepthinking coach, a trusted ally for managers such as Harry redknapp and a useful presence when Milan’s Italy midfielder rino Gattuso or anyone else loses the plot.
He won the title with Leeds, played in a european Cup final, the Fa Cup final, scored in three World Cup tournaments and adored playing for three years in Italy. Perhaps the big surprise is that Scotland have not tried to access his wealth of experience. MILan were in strife when they called in 1981. newly promoted to Serie a after relegation enforced by a betting scandal and far from the all-conquering force they once were. They were relegated in Jordan’s first season and went back up in his second, although his place in the hearts of the rossoneri was safe from the moment he scored in his first derby against Inter.
‘They gave you the respect but you had to wear the jersey well,’ said Jordan. ‘I’d played for Leeds and Man United but when you’re the only foreign player for aC Milan, one of the best clubs in the world, there is pressure and expectation and not just about the results.
‘It was hard, but it was the best move of my career. It opened up a lot for me. a lot of players come here and British players don’t go there. For me, I would go.’ even for a centre forward accustomed to european and international football the close attention of Italian defenders was a test of patience.
‘In those days they were the best,’ said Jordan, reeling off a list of names including Gaetano Scirea, Sergio Brio and Fulvio Collovati.
‘They had pride in stopping you, not letting you turn or get shots off, making tackles and blocks and not letting you reach a header. I’m not sure it’s as clinical now. You can play a lot more and you get freekicks and freedom if your position and body shape is right and the ball into you is good. Inside the box they can’t go near you.
‘If you’ve got awareness, you have the laws of the game on your side. If you get it right, you’re in control, defenders can’t get the ball.’
Milan took an instant hold of Jordan and has refused to let go, even 30 years after the family had returned to england.
Jordan said: ‘I went out there to sign and we’re going back to the airport in two cars with the chairman Felice Colombo, when he told the driver to stop in a street called Via Montenapoleone.
‘It’s the top street in Milan, with Versace and armani, and he got out and bought something for all my kids. For my mother he bought a silk scarf which my daughter still has, he bought something for my wife and a watch for my lawyer who helped me through the deal.
‘nothing for me but he bought something for everybody else. He was a classy guy.’
one of Jordan’s two daughters lives in Milan and roberto antonelli, a former team-mate and father of Milan’s Luca antonelli, is godfather to one of his two sons.
With his wife Judith, he visits friends in the village of Burago,, 12 miles north- east of Milan where here they lived, and seldom without hout taking in a game at the San Siro. iro.
He follows Serie a and since nce leaving his role as a coach at Middlesbrough last year the e 66-year-old has been brushing g up on his Italian grammar.
‘The place had history,’ said Jordan. ‘Look at the stadium, a fantastic stadium, a proper football stadium. old it may be and it’s not got the corporate edge, but to pull on a red and black shirt and walk out there, you would look around d and think: “aye, this is it”.
‘at the Milanello training ng ground there were three or four pitches, all exceptional. They didn’t have the Milan Lab, butt we had a ward with beds, more than just a treatment room.
‘In pre-season, we’d go away for two or three weeks up in the mountains, which I’d never done.
‘We trained hard, ate, slept and that was it. during the season, twice a week at least, we’d have double sessions.
‘We’d eat lunch together and the captain would stand to address the coach to ask if the players could be excused to go to their rooms. every day before training you would sit and have a coffee with the press if they wanted to talk to you. It was intense but I was 29, experienced and still fit. It was a good age to go. everything was new but I went with the flow. I tried to learn the language and the players tried to speak english.
‘The youth team coach was Fabio Capello and he always tried to speak a little bit of english. He was all right, Capello.’ Jordan’S professional standards and competitive edge were forged at Leeds under don revie, who signed him at the age of 18 from Morton for £15,000 in 1970 having seen him play once, as a centre half marking Jeff astle in an anglo- Scottish Cup tie against West Bromwich albion.
‘a wise and canny man,’ said Jordan, recalling the revie effect in an Fa Cup semi-final against Wolves at Maine road. ‘don played f for Manchester City and knew the g groundsman, so when we played City a week or so before the semifinal he handed over a bag of T Thompson-T match balls which w we used at Leeds.
‘He told him to put them in the r referee’s room on the day of the s semi-final because he wanted to p play with them. So we played with our own footballs in the semi-final and Wee Billy got the g goal and we won.
‘I came on for Big Jack and that was me getting to my first Fa Cup final. We picked up bottles of champagne and went straight to the hospital in Leeds to have a g glass with Terry Cooper who had broken his leg. That was don, he didn’t forget anybody and the players loved him.’
after losing to Sunderland in the Fa Cup final, Leeds were beaten by Milan in the european Cup Winners Cup final, in Thessaloniki.
The game is drenched in conspiracy theories as Leeds games from this era often are, and infamous for the performance of Greek referee Christos Michas, later found guilty of match- fixing (although not in this game).
Syd owen, the Leeds coach, ordered players not to swap shirts, but Gordon McQueen somehow managed it and years later passed the Milan shirt he acquired on to
his friend after he moved to Italy. ‘I don’t have many jerseys but I’ve got that one,’ said Jordan. ‘I’ve got my title medal and my caps.
‘Scotland gave you a cap for every year not for every game.
‘I’ve got 10 caps and the last one went missing. I’d played in the World Cup in Spain and waited three or four months and it didn’t come so I phoned the SFA.
‘The guy says: “Oh we sent it. It’s gone.” I said: “Well, I haven’t received it.” So he goes: “Yeah, we sent it to Inter.” Inter? No, not Inter. They had it on the wall at Inter. I had to go and get it.’
Jordan did mention the Cup Winners’ Cup final to his teammates at Milan. ‘I just got a shrug,’ he said. ‘How Leeds never won I’ll never know. The referee was horrendous. The Bayern Munich one was worse. That was a disgrace.’
This was the European Cup final in 1975 when Peter Lorimer’s goal was ruled out for offside and Leeds were denied a penalty when Franz Beckenbauer fouled Allan Clarke before losing 2-0.
It was the culmination of a stormy 12 months, with Revie’s departure, Brian Clough’s 44 days in charge and Jimmy Armfield’s arrival, and marked the end of the great Leeds era.
Days later, Leeds were relaxing on a post-season break in Spain when the waiter informed Jordan the manager of Bayern Munich was on the phone for him.
Jordan scanned the pool area, noted the absence of Billy Bremner and Johnny Giles and decided it was a wind-up so he sent Gordon McQueen to the bar instead.
McQueen, pretending to be Jordan, told Dettmar Cramer he was interested in the move but only if they signed Gordon McQueen as well.
CRAMER explained he had Beckenbauer and ‘Katsche’ Schwarzenbeck at the back and so McQueen returned to his sunbed to admit he had no idea who the caller was but his German accent was ‘real good’.
The seed was sown. ‘ I’m thinking, “Christ maybe it’s him,”’ said Jordan. ‘ The day we were leaving, I got a call at five in the morning and it was Cramer again wanting to know if I’d thought any more about it. I wanted to go.
‘I really liked the idea of playing abroad. When we got back to Leeds I told the manager. Bayern put in a record bid. Leeds wouldn’t let me go and that was that.’
Twelve months on and Jordan joined the Scotland squad at Hampden Park to watch Bayern complete a hat-trick of European titles with a 1- 0 win against Saint-Etienne. THE missed opportunity ate away but he got there in the end. He rejected Ajax to join Manchester United in 1978 and swapped Old Trafford for Milan three years later. Since he quit as a draughtsman to go full-time at Morton there has rarely been a backward step — as Gattuso found in 2011.
Gattuso, who is now Milan boss preparing to face Arsenal tonight in the Europa League, was then a midfield enforcer when he became engaged in a touchline row with Jordan during a Champions League tie against Tottenham.
They traded insults and Gattuso tried to butt him. Jordan, then aged 59 and wearing spectacles, did not flinch. ‘He definitely lost it,’ said Jordan. ‘I just happened to be there. Whether he knew me or not I don’t know. I don’t think it would have mattered to him.
‘He’d lost it during the game, got booked and couldn’t play at White Hart Lane. And then he lost it in my area. He was the captain and you’ve got to be disciplined.
‘I’ve lost it a few times. Not that many. I very rarely got sent off. I wasn’t going to move, put it that way. Definitely not.’