Bob Bradley has been named the new manager of Swansea City and became the first American to become manager of a Premier League team. While many in the United States were thrilled that an American finally has a chance to show what he can do, there wasn’t such enthusiasm in Wales.
On social media, Swansea fans are dissatisfied with Bradley being named manager and are afraid with the future of their team. And let’s be honest, they have a point. Bradley doesn’t have experience in English soccer or even the five major European leagues. His most recent job was a stint at French Ligue 2 side Le Havre. Bradley, and his job history, is a relative unknown to most people and he isn’t named “Ryan Giggs,” the Welsh legend who was an assistant as well as a caretaker manager at Manchester United and was also discussing the Swansea job.
[link_box id=”23195″ site_id=”158″ layout=”link-box-third” alignment=”alignright”]Swansea fans have every right to feel like this. When it comes to a new manager with no experience getting an Premier League job, it’s the same reaction people have with cell phone towers. Every manager has to start getting Premier League experience somewhere just like cell phone towers are useful for everyone, just not on my team/not in my backyard.
But Bob Bradley isn’t as bad a move as it may appear to be. In fact, it may be the best move Swansea could make right now. Looking through his pro coaching history, Bradley has been through some tough situations, both on and off the field, and made his teams better on the limited resources they had. I’m not saying he’s going to be the next Arsene Wenger or anything but his coaching resume is better than many people think.
Look at Bob Bradley’s first pro managerial jobs in MLS. Bradley took MLS expansion team Chicago Fire and won not one, but two trophies (MLS Cup and U.S. Open Cup) in 1998. He took that success and went to the NY/NJ MetroStars (now New York Red Bulls) and got them playing better in addition to finding unique interpretations of MLS rules to win games. At Chivas USA in 2006, Bradley took a bad expansion team and a team who had been more like the punchline of a bad joke within MLS, into the playoffs for the first time and after he left, was in the playoffs for each of the next three years. Chivas never made the playoffs after 2009 and was eventually disbanded after the 2014 season.
Bradley then left Chivas to go into international management and took over the U.S. Men’s National Team after they put in a terrible performance at the 2006 World Cup in Germany. While with the U.S., Bradley kept the team solidly in contention in World Cup Qualifying and under Bradley, won the 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup as well as runner-up in the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup after upsetting 2008 Euro and 2010 World Cup winners Spain in the Semifinals. Even though Bradley was sacked in 2011 in favor of Jurgen Klinsmann, Bradley provided a solid base for Klinsmann to work with.
After the United States, Bradley went to Egypt to try and have the Pharaohs qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1990. He encountered so much more than just a typical international job. Bradley took over Egypt and stayed with them at a time where there was civil and political unrest. It came to a head in their soccer world when 74 people were killed in the Port Said Stadium Riot at a game between El Masry and El Ahly where 73 El Masry fans were found guilty of attacking El Ahly fans. The Egyptian Premier League was cancelled for the next two years and Bradley had to get Egypt into the World Cup, which had never happened. And do that with your players unable to play club soccer as many players protested in order to overthrow their president. With all that, Egypt fell one game short, losing to Ghana and Bradley was sacked. The documentary American Pharaoh (not the horse) did a great job detailing Bradley’s situation in Egypt and what the country was going through.
Bradley went back to club soccer and went up north to Norway, leading Stabæk in 2014. Iaking over as Stabæk promoted to the Norweigan Tippeligaen, he put Stabæk midtable in 9th out of 16 teams. The next year, Stabæk finished 3rd and qualified for the Europa League. Bradley then went to French Ligue 2 team Le Havre. Only being at Le Havre for a year, Bradley was in a promotion race and almost did the impossible, catching up six goals in goal differential on the last day on Metz. But Metz held onto win promotion to Ligue 1 after being tied in goal differential and scoring two more goals over the season than Le Havre.
Now, Bob Bradley is set to head to Wales and become Swansea manager. Throughout everything he has done, this will be Bradley’s biggest and most public test. Every move studied, every move scrutinized by rival managers, fans and the media. The things he has done in MLS, Tippeligaen, Ligue 2 and international play pales in comparison to the Premier League. But everyone has to start somewhere and while many may view lack of Premier League experience as an issue, Bob Bradley will use the experiences he has been through to succeed in the Premier League.
Bob Bradley isn’t going to be the “sexy pick” when it comes to managing a team. He doesn’t bring a pedigree of success or name recognition that makes fans comfortable that their team made the right choice in a new manager. This isn’t a criticism on Swansea’s fans, it’s like that for every team around the world. What Bob Bradley is, is someone with a noticeable track record of making his teams better and leaving them better off than when he started with them. Swansea needs that more than ever. They need to survive relegation and get back to when they were the envy of the midtable Premier League teams a few years ago. Get there and then if you feel like it’s better go after someone who can get Swansea to take that next step, do it. But for now, Swansea has who they think is their man and Bob Bradley is now on the big stage, now get after it and prove the doubters wrong and earn that place.
