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Tuesday’s game is the first meeting between Milan and Tottenham since the infamous round of 16 clash in 2011
Gennaro Gattuso had been looking for a fight all night.
Peter Crouch was not made to react to the Milan midfielder’s late failures and provocations, Rafael van de Vaart and Steven Pienaar too gracious or amazed to react to his antics, the officials seemingly unwilling to crack down properly.
In Tottenham’s technical area, however, stood a square-jawed Scot with a shaved head, stinging eyes and a gnashing of teeth. Joe Jordan had spent almost half a century in football refusing to take a step back and he wasn’t going to start now.
It has been 12 years to the day since Tottenham recorded one of their best European results by beating then Serie A leaders AC Milan in the first leg of the Champions League round of 16 first leg. The only thing most remembered about the night are the two clashes between a wild-eyed, disheveled-haired 33-year-old and a bespectacled opposition coach on the verge of his 60s.
Goals and skill remain football’s main attraction, but there’s an appeal for a scuffle on the pitch, despite what pearly commentators may tell you as the scenes force you from your seat and draw you ever closer to your TV screen.
What made the San Siro spat all the more intriguing was the way it played out over the course of a riveting 90 minutes and that the then poster boy for modern combative midfielders was pitted against a grey-haired old pro who had once been Milan’s toughest man in a time full of it.
Sitting in Sky’s studio at the San Siro on the night of the game, Graeme Souness remarked that Gattuso clearly “didn’t do his homework” when deciding to compete against Jordan.
Had he done so, the Italian would have read about a man who grew up in a Lanarkshire pit village and learned to play at a local football field which he called the Corn Patch. He would have learned from a player trained by the likes of Billy Bremner and Norman Hunter in what is arguably the toughest dressing room of all at Leeds United in the 1970s. He may also have seen the Times naming the Scot the 34th toughest man in football history in 2007.
A little closer to Gattuso’s homeland, just two years before the game against Spurs to mark the 110th anniversary of AC Milan’s founding, Jordan was voted one of the club’s 110 most important players.
In truth, the Italian need only look at the images, which a quick Google search would provide; of the toothless grin Jordan earned when he stuck his head where it hurts in a reserve game early in his playing days. He was Jaws for much of his 11-year playing career in England. In Italy it was called “Lo Squalo” (The Shark).
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Between his time at Leeds and AC Milan, Jordan made more than 100 appearances for Manchester United
Hearing Jordan describe the night he and Gattuso clashed, it seemed like the Italian wasn’t thinking at all.
“Gattuso lost himself,” Jordan told Sky’s Goals on Sunday in 2016. “It was a big game, he was captain of his club, we won the game and he was struggling with one or two players. He had a problem with the referee. He obviously had a problem with himself. He was teasing an old man like me.”
The game started relatively harmlessly but became increasingly restless, with the home side chafing that goalkeeper Christian Abbiati had to be replaced after a collision with Crouch in the penalty area.
The size of the tie lent itself to engagement as wet conditions made controlling tackles more difficult. It only took a few borderline challenges for it to go unchecked, for grievances to fester and retaliation to be demanded. Gattuso was usually the center of attention, but he was far from alone in a Milan midfield that also included former Arsenal player Mathieu Flamini.
It was the Frenchman who ignited the touch paper, nearly taking Vedran Corluka’s right foot off with a skidding bipod, which he then enthusiastically celebrated in front of the home fans. Corluka was carried away on a stretcher and later left the ground on crutches.
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Flamini had joined Milan in 2008 from Tottenham’s bitter north London rivals Arsenal
After that, Gattuso and Jordan came into each other’s orbit for the first time.
After play stopped, the latter encroached onto the field and was hit by the former, who pushed him away with a hand to his throat. To his credit, Spurs boss Harry Redknapp attempted to intervene but clearly his appetite to squeeze between the two angry silverbacks was minimal.
Gattuso, his head gone, was now a ticking bomb, throwing himself into tackles with ferocious abandon and responding to any perceived slight with ridiculous theatrics.
Eventually, the referee acted and responded to a long, late boot from Pienaar by showing the Milan captain a yellow card – one that would keep him out of the second leg.
Now it only needed a Spurs winner to crown Gattuso’s nightmare and Crouch duly delivered with 10 minutes remaining after being set up by Aaron Lennon.
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Tottenham enjoyed an outstanding Champions League debut season and reached the last eight where they were beaten by Real Madrid
After full-time, further fury was inevitable, the lasting image of the night was that of a now shirtless Gattuso, face to face with Jordan, who had ominously removed his glasses.
The Italian tried to have the last word, poking his head forward in a tame attempted headbutt, sparking a hand-to-hand fight from players and staff that saw the main protagonists edged out and held back from further attempts to embarrass themselves.
After that, Gattuso’s camp provided another layer on the events, suggesting that Jordan had been providing ongoing comment about abuse throughout the night, setting a voice trap into which her husband naively fell.
Gattuso’s agent Claudio Pasqualin told reporters: “Jordan, after constantly berating him, insulted him with a really low sentence.
“For someone like Rino, who has a strong sense of his Italian identity, I think that’s the most disgusting and unjustified insult.”
To his credit, Gattuso has since deeply regretted his behavior that night.
Speaking to Il Correire della Sera in 2022, he said: “I made a mistake and I’m ashamed. It’s something I did and it was an unjustifiable mistake.
“I could say that things like that happen on the pitch, but I’m ashamed of it. I have a 14-year-old son. Do you think I’m not ashamed every time he rightly asks me why I did it? “
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Gattuso was Milan coach from 2017-19, with his most recent management job being a seven-month stint at Spanish club Valencia that ended in January
A decade on from that night in Milan there would be repercussions, at least in Gattuso’s mind, as the Italian suggested his battle with Jordan was a major factor in his not succeeding Jose Mourinho as Spurs boss in the club’s protracted summer quest from 2021.
However, the hostile reaction from Tottenham fans to his possible appointment – the news was captured on social media with a #NoToGattuso hashtag – may have had more to do with alleged historical racist and homophobic comments made by the Italian, which he claims have caused them were “misrepresented”.
Gattuso tried to make amends with Jordan straight away, inviting him to be his guest in Milan in the months following the 2011 game. While Jordan can’t accept his offer, Jordan insists he has no problem with him or regrets that night. Well, maybe apart from one…
“He invited me to the training ground and wanted me to be his guest there,” he said. “That was maybe six months after it happened. But I never had the chance.
“What’s past is past. It’s forgotten for me, I don’t hold grudges. It’s just a shame I didn’t play!”
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