Former-USA head coach Bob Bradley has been appointed as Swansea boss
I have to admit that I did expect to be sitting here writing an article about Bob Bradley becoming the new Swansea boss.
I wrote an article a few days ago about the Swans and how Francesco Guidolin was set to be sacked. According to one of the tabloids Ryan Giggs looked set to be his replacement.
The first part was right about Guidolin being replaced. However, to my surprise it is former-USA national team boss Bob Bradley who is the new man at the Liberty Stadium hot seat and not Giggs.
Has a lot of experience
Bob Bradley is a guy that has been around the footballing block at 58-years-old. To most his most memorable job was that of USA head coach from 2006-2011. Since leaving his post as US boss he has managed the Egypt national team and Stabaek in Norway. His most recent job was at French club Le Havre.
His CV is one of intrigue and he is definitely a boss with experience. There would have to be a question mark over his ability to manage at the top level though. His biggest achievements in football are winning the MLS Cup with Chicago Fire in 1998 and the CONCACAF Gold Cup with USA in 2007.
Bradley has questioned the quality of the bosses in the Premier League. However, he now has a job on his hands to prove his managerial credentials at a Premier League club.
Who choose Bob Bradley?
Swansea have new American owners and I am not sure how much they influenced this decision. Chairman Huw Jenkins has been at the club a long time and the Swans do have history of making out of the norm appointments.
Giving Garry Monk the opportunity and also hiring veteran Italian Guidolin had to be regarded as out of the norm for a top-flight British club. All Swansea’s recent managerial appointments have been short-term successes in recent years, but seem to have no longevity at all.
Has Jenkins chosen Bradley or have the American owners seen what he had done in MLS and with the national team and thought he would be a good choice? I would like to think that the club had more nous than to appoint a boss on the say so of new owners.
I do not know much about the new Swansea owners, so I cannot say if they know soccer that well. However, it just seems a coincidence that the club get owners from the USA and suddenly the club has an American boss at the helm.
Co-owner Jason Levien has stated that they did not appoint Bradley because he was American, but because he was the right man for the job.
Only time will tell whether that is true. But as the first American boss in the Premier League he certainly carries a lot of responsibility. A number of US owners have bought into British football in recent years and not appointed one of their compatriots. Let’s just see how it turns out.
This appointment could go either way
Bob Bradley is Swansea City boss and fans will need to get used to it. He had a decent record with both the US and Egyptian national team. However, his managerial records in both Norway and France were not great.
Le Havre was playing football in the second tier of French football under Bradley. However, they missed out on promotion to Ligue One narrowly last season.
Bradley faces a big task in south Wales. The Swans are currently 17th in the Premier League table. The Welsh side have suffered defeat in five of their seven league games so far this season. The Welsh side are now odds of 2/1 to be relegated from the Premier League this season.
Swansea will know that they are in another relegation scrap. However, it would be fair to suggest that the Swans have had a fairly difficult fixture list to contend with in their first seven games of the season.
At the moment the general feeling amongst Swans fans seems to be mixed. Bob Bradley is not a guy who has set the world alight on the managerial scene. However, with the club struggling at the moment of the table no top-class boss would head to Wales to take the post.
Bradley now has the chance to prove to his doubters wrong and save Swansea from the drop. If he does then Swansea fans will not care about his nationality. He will just be regarded as another boss who saved the Swans from the drop.
Will Bob Bradley be successful at Swansea?
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