Joe Jordan (footballer)

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Joe Jordan (born 15 December 1951 in Cleland, Scotland) was a centre-forward in the traditional mould who shot to fame in the last great Leeds United team of the 1970s and became along with Kenny Dalglish one of only two Scots to score in three World Cups in 1974, 1978 and 1982. He is currently a coach at English Premiership club Portsmouth.

Contents 1 Playing career 1.1 Early career 1.2 Leeds United 1.3 Manchester United 1.4 AC Milan 1.5 Later career 2 Coaching and management career 3 Managerial stats 4 External Links

[edit] Playing career

[edit] Early career

Jordan commenced playing lower league football in Scotland for Blantyre Victoria aged just 15. As an apprentice, Jordan combined playing with working as a draughtsman and was spotted by a Leeds scout while playing with Morton, who recommended him to manager Don Revie.

Jordan cut a scary, imposing figure early in his career as he had his two front teeth forcibly removed by defenders. He therefore had some dentures fitted which, for safety reasons, he would remove prior to every game, therefore giving him a toothless grin which made him look more frightening than the norm and gained him the nickname Jaws.

But he was a strong, courageous and potent young striker and Revie got a bargain when Jordan's club, Morton, accepted his offer of £15,000 in 1970.

[edit] Leeds United

There was little prospect of Jordan getting first team football straightaway as the feared partnership of Allan Clarke and Mick Jones were a long established duo and Jordan patiently waited his turn from the reserves while making the odd appearance in the event of minor injuries and suspensions.

In 1973, he appeared more often, managing 16 League starts and scoring nine goals but was unsurprisingly left out of the team which contested the FA Cup final against Sunderland which Leeds lost 1-0.

However, Revie selected him days later for the European Cup Winners Cup final against A.C. Milan, which again ended in a 1-0 defeat. In the same month, Jordan played his first game for Scotland in a 1-0 defeat against England at Wembley.

Jordan started to appear more frequently for Leeds the following season as they coasted towards the League title thanks to an unbeaten run of 29 games at the start of the season. He scored seven goals in 25 League games and had earned nine more Scotland caps by the end of the season, scoring two goals on the way (including one against England at Hampden Park) and making him a certainty to be selected in the Scotland squad for the 1974 World Cup finals in West Germany.

Jordan scored the second goal in a 2-0 win over Zaire in the first group game, and the last minute equaliser in a 1-1 draw with Yugoslavia. Scotland emerged from the group unbeaten but still went out of the competition.

Back at Leeds, Revie had gone to take over as England's manager and Jordan's main rival for the No.9 shirt, Jones, was fighting a losing battle with a knee injury, so the door was open for Jordan to establish himself fully as the club's main target man. This he did to an extent, making 26 League appearances though his goal return of just four was mildly disappointing. His work-rate and positional play, however, earned him many plaudits.

He was in the team which contested the 1975 European Cup final against Bayern Munich which Leeds lost 2-0, a match which essentially was the last hurrah for Revie's side. The older players began to leave the club and though a continuing regular for his country, the decaying situation at Leeds as the club dropped into mediocrity had an effect on Jordan, whose goalscoring never fully recovered.

In 1977, Jordan caused controversy during the decisive World Cup qualifying match between Scotland and Wales. Late in the game, with the scores level, Scotland were attacking in the Wales penalty area when Jordan handled the ball. The referee, believing the ball to have been handled by a Welsh player, awarded a penalty, from which Scotland scored. The victory meant that Scotland qualified for the World Cup at Wales' expense.

Leeds fans were shocked when just days into 1978, Leeds agreed a £350,000 pounds fee from hated enemies Manchester United and Jordan left for Old Trafford.

His fellow Scot, defender Gordon McQueen, made the same move a mere month later and though Leeds soldiered on, the team and club never recovered from losing all of its stars in quick succession and were relegated within four years.

Jordan had made 135 League appearances and scored 39 goals by the time he crossed the Pennines. He was selected by Ally McLeod in the Scotland squad for the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, scoring in the opening 3-1 defeat against Peru. Scotland again failed to qualify beyond the group stage.

[edit] Manchester United

At Manchester United, he settled quickly into another underachieving team and reached the FA Cup final in 1979 which they lost 3-2 to Arsenal He emerged trophyless for two seasons thereafter before a surprise bid by A.C. Milan took him to Italy in 1981.

[edit] AC Milan

In 1982, Jordan again went to the World Cup with Scotland. The contest, held in Spain, would yet again see Scotland fail to progress beyond the group stages. However, a personal milestone was achieved by Jordan when he scored in the 2-2 draw against the USSR, equaling Kenny Dalglish's record of scoring at three World Cups.

Unfortunately he got injured in the same match, missed the rest of the tournament and never played for his country again. His international career ended with 52 appearances and yielded ten goals. As a player with more than 50 caps, he holds a permanent place in the Scotland Hall of Fame.

Jordan's nickname while playing for the rossoneri was "Lo Squalo" (the shark).

[edit] Later career

After leaving Milan, where he was generally unsuccessful, he went on to play for Hellas Verona for a spell before returning to England to join Southampton in 1984.

He spent three years there as his career wound down, finishing his playing days at Bristol City, for whom he was also player-manager for a spell.

[edit] Coaching and management career

After an impressive spell at Bristol City, reaching the semi-finals of the League cup, Jordan returned to Scotland afterwards to coach Hearts and worked for a time at Celtic, before returning for a second spell in charge of Bristol City and stints managing Huddersfield Town and Stoke City. The highest point of his managerial career was winning promotion to the old Second Division with Bristol City in 1990, just before his departure for Hearts. From December 2000 until May 2002, he was assistant to his former Manchester United team-mate Lou Macari at Huddersfield Town.

A highly respected coach in the game, Jordan was part of Harry Redknapp's backroom team at Portsmouth and continued to coach the team under the management of Velimir Zajec and Alain Perrin. He took over as caretaker manager for 2 games in November 2005 after Perrin's departure before Redknapp returned after resigning from Southampton.

There are some Leeds fans with long memories - when Rio Ferdinand controversially left Leeds for Manchester United in 2002, a banner was unfurled at the next game shortlisting a number of "traitors" who had made the move from Elland Road to Old Trafford - the other names were Cantona, Jordan and McQueen.

[edit] Managerial stats

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	L	D	Win %
Bristol City		March 16, 1988	September 1, 1990	134	68	36	30	50.74
Heart of Midlothian		September 10, 1990	May 3, 1993	143	69	31	43	48.25
Stoke City		November 10, 1993	September 8, 1994	40	13	14	13	32.50
Bristol City		November 15, 1994	March 24, 1997	130	42	51	37	32.30
Portsmouth		November 24, 2005	December 7, 2005	2	0	2	0	00.00

[edit] External Links

• Joe Jordan's (incomplete) career stats at Soccerbase
• Joe Jordan management career stats at Soccerbase

Preceded by Terry Cooper	Bristol City F.C. manager 1988-1990	Succeeded by Jimmy Lumsden
Preceded by Alex MacDonald	Heart of Midlothian F.C. manager 1990-1993	Succeeded by Sandy Clark
Preceded by Lou Macari	Stoke City F.C. manager 1993-1994	Succeeded by Asa Hartford
Preceded by Russell Osman	Bristol City F.C. manager 1994-1997	Succeeded by John Ward
Preceded by Alain Perrin	Portsmouth F.C. caretaker manager 2005	Succeeded by Harry Redknapp

	Scotland squad - 1974 FIFA World Cup
1 Harvey | 2 Jardine | 3 McGrain | 4 Bremner | 5 Holton | 6 Blackley | 7 Johnstone | 8 Dalglish | 9 Jordan | 10 Hay | 11 Lorimer | 12 Allan | 13 Stewart | 14 Buchan | 15 Cormack | 16 Donachie | 17 Ford | 18 Hutchison | 19 Law | 20 Morgan | 21 McQueen | 22 Schaedler | Coach: Ormond

	Scotland squad - 1978 FIFA World Cup
1 Rough | 2 Jardine | 3 Donachie | 4 Buchan | 5 McQueen | 6 Rioch | 7 Masson | 8 Dalglish | 9 Jordan | 10 Hartford | 11 Johnston | 12 Blyth | 13 Kennedy | 14 Forsyth | 15 Gemmill | 16 Macari | 17 Johnstone | 18 Souness | 19 Robertson | 20 Clark | 21 Harper | 22 Burns | Coach: MacLeod

	Scotland squad - 1982 FIFA World Cup
1 Rough | 2 McGrain | 3 Gray | 4 Souness | 5 Hansen | 6 Miller | 7 Strachan | 8 Dalglish | 9 Brazil | 10 Wark | 11 Robertson | 12 Wood | 13 McLeish | 14 Narey | 15 Jordan | 16 Hartford | 17 Evans | 18 Archibald | 19 Sturrock | 20 Provan | 21 Burley | 22 Leighton | Coach: Stein