Joe Jordan’s advice for Tommy Conway as Bristol City striker prepares to make Scotland bow

With 52 caps for Scotland and three World Cup campaigns under his belt, Joe Jordan is as well placed as anyone to pass on some sage advice to Tommy Conway as he prepares to take his first steps on the international stage with a looming major tournament.

And the former Bristol City striker and manager has a simple message for the 21-year-old, who has made a late but significant entry into Scotland’s provisional Euro 2024 squad – go and enjoy it.

Conway is in line to win his first senior cap on Friday night against Finland at Hampden Park, having joined the squad on Tuesday from Under-21 training due to an injury to Lyndon Dykes, with Steve Clarke also set to complete his last 26 .-group of people for Germany until tomorrow.

The Taunton-born striker has established himself in City’s first team over the past two seasons and his star is undoubtedly on the rise, but for many in Scotland who don’t follow Championship football, his presence is an intriguing mystery. and as a result there will be considerable focus on him given his late arrival and the lack of scoring options available to Clarke.

That’s a reasonable burden for anyone to carry, let alone a young forward making a sizeable career move, but Jordan insists he can’t let the opportunity get the better of him and is ultimately there in that team because he deserves. This one.

“Enjoy her. Really,” Jordan told Bristol Live when asked what his main advice would be for Conway. “To get to that level, where you’ve been called up for your nation, you’ve definitely shown something. It’s all the hard work you’ve done since you were a little boy and the improvement you’ve made through that hard work and the skill you’ve shown then.

“It doesn’t happen easily, so if you get an opportunity to be in a group of international players, learn from it and express yourself and don’t let it pass you by. You have an opportunity, so go and take advantage.

“If you get a chance, whether you start the game or come on as a sub – my first game, I came off the bench – you take that opportunity and you don’t let it go. Don’t be amazed by her.

“It’s an honor and to play at that level is fantastic, but you’ve proven yourself through the ranks, from school, football to academy, under-21s with Scotland – that’s all the stages you’ve been through – and now you’re in the national team , don’t let the opportunity be too much for you. Relax, enjoy it and learn so much from it, both on and off the field.

Jordan made 76 appearances for City from 1986 to 1990 at the end of a storied career which saw him play for Greenock Morton, Leeds United – where he won the First Division title in 1974 – Manchester United, AC Milan, Verona and Southampton. He went on to lead the Robins for 279 games over two spells from 1988-90 and 1994-97.

He was a similar age to Conway when he won his first cap at 22, just three days after Leeds were beaten by AC Milan in the European Cup Winners’ Cup final. That iconic side of the early 1970s was full of top talent and, having proved himself in that environment among such cheering peers, his debut for Scotland at Wembley in 1973 was therefore further confirmation of his point that he is in his career at that time. .

Conway’s situation is a bit different given his status as a championship player of course, but there are similarities in terms of the career path he believes he is on and in making such a progression at his young age, being in the Scotland squad should serve as a confidence booster to be used in the coming days and matches.

“I was lucky, I went to Leeds United and my foot in the dressing room was between Eddie Gray and Peter Lorimer,” added Jordan, who was inducted into the Scotland Hall of Fame in 2005. “I played with a team that , 9 or 10 of the 11 were international players.

“I went to Leeds at 18 and played in the reserves and worked my way up, so going to international level wasn’t such a leap. My first game was against England at Wembley and before that I had played AC Milan in the Cup Winners’ Cup final.

“I was in a dressing room which was full of international players from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, so when I got there I thought I had won it because I was a Leeds United player; I moved and improved playing with those players, so moving to Scotland and playing in that gane, it was an opportunity and you don’t let it go.

“You got it, go prove it, but go and enjoy it. You’re there because the manager and his assistants watched you and chose you.”

Conway’s place in Germany will not be confirmed until the final 26-man squad is presented, and the arrival of New York Red Bulls forward Lewis Morgan has increased Clarke’s tally to 28, but it is in his hands to impress the manager and win. a seat on the plane for the European Championships.

Jordan’s first World Cup came in Germany in 1974 and proved to be Scotland’s first for 16 years, and although he was part of a star-studded group that included so many legends – with several trophies won between them – to playing in a major tournament was, to a degree, the peaks of their respective careers.

“It’s not just another game,” Jordan added. “You’ve got players at the moment in England and with the squad cut, those guys will be devastated because you’ve worked your whole career to do this – play for your country at a tournament.

“My first World Cup, I went and played alongside players who had waited their whole careers to do it and they were players who had put everything into the game: Jimmy Johnstone at Celtic, Billy Bremner, Denis Law – those three, I forgotten. at, and enjoyed the experience of going there and playing at the highest level against the best players in the world.

“It’s an honor and a privilege and something you take every day and enjoy. You could see from them what it means to fulfill a career, to play in a World Cup or European Championships.”

There is an element of regret for Jordan around that World Cup, as while Scotland started the tournament with a 2-0 win over Zaire, in which he scored the second, they failed to get out of the group after draws with holders Brazil and then Yugoslavia passing them into third place on goal difference. Had the margin of victory been greater in that opening game, the tartan army could very well have gone through.

“We beat Zaire in the opening game two and we deservedly won but we should have gone and scored more goals because after that we had Brazil and Yugoslavia and they were two top teams and we lost on goal.” Jordan. said, who found his target in the final game of the group.

“It was a mistake. We hadn’t played in the World Cup for 16 years, so going into the Zaire game, people thought that winning the game was enough, ‘we’ll take this’, but it wasn’t. You learn from that, and that it’s true for Tommy as well; he’ll learn a lot from having that experience – the preparation, the tournament itself, everything.”

As for the Scotland line-up in 2024, the sense of exile is not so strong, given their appearance at Euro 2020 (played in 2021 due to the pandemic) ended a barren 23-year run without major football tournaments .

Jordan went to watch them twice last year and was particularly impressed by their performance in Norway as late goals from Dykes and Kenny McLean secured a 2-1 comeback win over opposition that included on superstars Erling Haaland and Martin Odegaard.

It was built around a collective team spirit and tactical cohesion that they will need to replicate in Germany as they face hosts Switzerland and Hungary in Group A.

“Norway were good but Scotland won the game in the last 10 minutes,” said Jordan. “They hung in there and you looked at it and thought, ‘Norway will eventually score again here’, but they didn’t. Scotland were a unit, they were tight and it didn’t look like they were going to be outplayed and they won the game by being a team.

“They absorbed everything and when they got the chance they scored the goals to win them the game. So from that point of view, I was impressed with them.

“If you’re going to play the host nation, which is maybe the toughest game you’re going to have, maybe it’s better to play them at the beginning of the group; everything is square, you don’t need to snap points or anything. If they can get a result there, like a draw or something, then that sets them up. It’s a good, tough group they’re in, so it’s going to be tough.”

Now 72 and most recently part of Bournemouth’s coaching staff until his departure in 2021, Jordan still lives in Bristol and was last at Ashton Gate for the 1-0 defeat in against Leeds United in February.

But his son Thomas, a former centre-back for Weston-super-mare, and 13-year-old grandson Samuel are lifelong City fans and regular BS3 attendees, even though Jordan tried unsuccessfully to bring one to white-green. the Glasgow side.

“I gave Samuel a Celtic shirt but no, he’s got the Bristol City shirt and that’s the one for him,” he adds with a chuckle.

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