Tommy Conway is likely to be involved for Scotland as they take on Finland in their final warm-up game before Euro 2024
With three World Cup campaigns under his belt and 52 caps for Scotland, Joe Jordan is in a unique position to offer Tommy Conway some wise counsel as he gets ready to make his debut on the international scene ahead of a significant tournament.
The 21-year-old, who has made a late but noteworthy addition to Scotland’s provisional team for Euro 2024, has received a straightforward advice from the former manager and striker for Bristol City: go have fun.
Due to an injury to Lyndon Dykes, Conway is expected to receive his first senior cap on Friday night at Hampden Park against Finland. Steve Clarke must also complete the formation of his final 26-man Germany team by tomorrow. Conway joined the squad on Tuesday from the Under-21 squad.
The forward, who is from Taunton, has made a name for himself in the City first team over the past two seasons, and he is clearly becoming more and more of a star. However, many people in Scotland who don’t follow Championship football find his presence to be somewhat of an intriguing mystery, so given his late arrival and Clarke’s lack of options when it comes to scoring goals, there will be a lot of attention on him.
Even if a young striker making a significant professional advancement has a fair amount of pressure to carry, Jordan maintains that he must rise to the opportunity and that, in the end, he is in that team because he deserves it.
Have fun with it. I mean it when I say that, Jordan said to Bristol Live when asked what his major piece of advise to Conway would be. You have undoubtedly proven something to reach that point, where you have been called up to represent your country. It’s all the effort you have put out since you were a little kid, the progress you have achieved as a result of that effort, and the skills you have subsequently demonstrated.
Since it’s not something that happens often, seize the chance to interact with players from across the world, express yourself, and don’t let it pass you by. Go grab this chance that is yours.
“If you have the opportunity, seize it and don’t let it pass you by, whether you’re starting the game or substituting in—I started the game from the bench in my first game. Avoid being intimidated by it.
“It’s an honour and amazing to play at that level, but you have proven yourself throughout the years. You went through school, played academy football, and represented Scotland in the Under-21 league; these are all the phases you went through. Now that you’re in the national team, don’t let the pressure get to you. You’ll gain a lot of knowledge from it, both on and off the pitch, if you just sit back, enjoy, and soak it all in.
At the end of a legendary career that saw him play for Greenock Morton, Leeds United (where he won the First Division title in 1974), Manchester United, AC Milan, Verona, and Southampton, Jordan made 76 appearances for City from 1986 to 1990. Later, he managed the Robins for 279 games throughout two stints (1988–1990 and 1994–1997).
He received his first cap at the age of 22, three days after Leeds was defeated by AC Milan in the European Cup Winners Cup final, making him comparable in age to Conway. Because he had established himself in that setting amid such ecstatic peers, his 1973 Scotland debut at Wembley served as additional validation of where he felt he was in his career at that time. That legendary early 1970s period was rife with exceptional talent.
Conway’s circumstances are slightly different because he plays in the Championship, but there are parallels with the career path he feels he is on and his early success in doing so. Being included in the Scotland squad should give him more confidence for the upcoming days and games.
“It was fortunate that I was playing for Leeds United and had my peg in the locker room between Eddie Grey and Peter Lorimer,” Jordan, the 2005 Scotland Hall of Fame inductee, continued. “Maybe nine or ten of the eleven players on the team I played with were foreign players.
“Going to the international level wasn’t such a leap; I played in the reserves at Leeds when I was eighteen and worked my way up.” Before then, we had faced AC Milan in the Cup Winners Cup final, and my first match was at Wembley versus England.
“When I arrived, I felt I had earned it because I play for Leeds United; I had improved by playing with those players, so moving to Scotland and playing in that league was an opportunity that you do not let slip. I was in a dressing room full of international players from England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland.
“You’ve got it; go show it, but also go have fun. The manager and his aides have selected you after observing you. This is why you are there.
Conway’s place in Germany won’t be confirmed until that final 26-man list is submitted, and the arrival of New York Red Bulls forward Lewis Morgan has boosted Clarke’s numbers back up to 28, but it’s in his hands to impress the manager and earn a seat on the plane for the European Championships.
Jordan’s first World Cup was in Germany in 1974, and proved Scotland’s first for 16 years, and although he was part of an all-star group that included so many legends – with multiple trophies won between them – playing at a major tournament was, to some extent, the pinnacles of their respective careers.
“It ain’t just another game,” Jordan added. “You’ve got players at this moment in time in England and with the squad cut down, those guys will be devastated because you have worked throughout your career to do that – 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 that, and these were players who had done everything in the game: Jimmy Johnstone at Celtic, Billy Bremner, Denis Law – those three, I looked at, and they savoured the experience of going there and playing at the highest level against the best players in the world.
“It’s an honour and a privilege and something you take every day and you enjoy it. You could see from them what it meant to fulfil 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 began the tournament with a 2-0 win over Zaire, in which he scored the second, they were unable to progress out of the group after draws with holders Brazil and then Yugoslavia shunted them into third due to goal difference. Had the margin of victory been greater in that opening fixture, the Tartan Army may well have made it through.
“We beat Zaire on the opening game two nothing and we deservedly won but we should have went and scored more goals because, after that, we had Brazil and Yugoslavia and they were two top teams, and we lost out on goal difference,” Jordan said, who also found the target in the final group game.
“It was a mistake. We hadn’t played in the World Cup for 16 years so going into the Zaire game, people thought to win the game was enough, ‘we’ll take that’, but it wasn’t. From that, you learn, and that’s true also of Tommy; he’ll learn loads of things, of having that experience – the build-up, the tournament itself, everything.”
As for the Scotland side in 2024, the feeling of exile isn’t so strong given their appearance at Euro 2020 (played in 2021 due to the pandemic) ended a barren run of 23 years without major tournament football.
Jordan went to watch them twice last year and was particularly taken by their performance in Norway as late goals from Dykes and Kenny McLean secured a 2-1 comeback victory over an opposition which included superstars Erling Haaland and Martin Odegaard.
It was built around a collective team spirit and tactical cohesion they will have to replicate in Germany as they take on the hosts, Switzerland and Hungary in Group A.
“Norway were good but Scotland won the game in the last 10 minutes,” Jordan said. “They hung on in there, and you looked at it and thought, ‘Norway are eventually going to score again here’, but they didn’t. Scotland were a unit, they were tight and didn’t look like they were going to get overrun and they won the game by being a team.
“They absorbed it all and when they got the chance scored the goals to win them the game. So from that point of view, I was impressed by them.
“If you’re going to play the host nation, which is maybe the hardest game you’re going to get, it’s maybe better playing them at the beginning of the group; everything is square, you’re not having to catch points up or anything. If they can get a result there, like a draw or something like that, then it sets them up. It’s a good, hard group they’re in, so it’s going to be tough.”
Now 72, and most recently part of the coaching staff at Bournemouth until his departure in 2021, Jordan still lives in Bristol and was last at Ashton Gate for the 1-0 defeat to 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 attendees in BS3, even if Jordan has unsuccessfully tried to sway one them towards the green and white side of Glasgow.
“I gave Samuel a Celtic shirt but, no, he’s got the Bristol City jersey and that’s the one for him,” he adds with a chuckle.
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