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Bob Bradley ‘angry’ with Swansea City owners

Bob Bradley’s tenure with Swansea City lasted just 85 days, but it appears that his emotions remain several months after his dismissal.

The American coach says he is “angry” with the Swansea owners Jason Levien and Steve Kaplan for what he perceives as an admission that his hiring was a mistake. Bradley was appointed as Swansea’s manager in October, but was fired on Dec. 27 after just 11 games in charge.

“There’s a difference between saying ‘that’s our decision’ and ‘we made a mistake’,” Bradley told BBC Sport. “I’ve had some people send me some of the articles after the [Swansea City] Supporters’ Trust meeting where Jason and Steve say that it was a mistake to hire me and that makes me angry.

“For them to say that ‘yes, this is our decision’, that is very fair – they should be honest. But when it’s said in a way where it comes out like ‘yes, we were responsible for that mistake’, then does that make me angry? Of course.”

As things stand, Swansea City sits 18th in the Premier League, two points from safety despite an initial surge under Paul Clement in the wake of Bradley’s firing.

Since his dismissal, Bradley has stated that he believes there was a bias against him due to his nationality, a belief he still has to date.

“I know that the work every day was good. It’s impossible for players there after the fact to come out and speak about the work we did when I was there,” Bradley said. “They have to concentrate on what’s going on at the moment, so what it means is it’s easy for there to be things written and said which are not fair and accurate.

“And yes, some of that is because I’m American, and some of that is because I was hired by American owners – that was part of the situation. The challenge was always going to be to get enough points in the short term and, unfortunately, football can work in tough ways. For me, 11 games is not a big amount of time. Many teams go through stretches when you don’t take the points you should, but I’ve never complained about any of that because that’s how football works.”

Comments

  1. If Swansea get relegated, and I hope that occurs by the way, it’ll be well deserved and karma-esque when you consider management allowed the fans to make their decision, which never ends well for any organization. The honest truth is that roster is shit and Swansea are in the same position they were in when Bob was fired. Now, I don’t agree with him still talking about that experience because it comes off as salty, but I also get his emotion surrounding it all!!! If anyone thinks he wasn’t given the quick because of fan pressure and the English media bush league tactics due to him being American are kidding themselves
    #staywoke

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  2. He really did not do a good job. He misread his task. His task was to be a ferry boat captain, and just take the team across the river to safety. Instead, He seems to have perceived himself as the Captain of a Liner on a long voyage and tried to coach that way . Sorry, but he made a mistake. It happens.

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  3. Someone should tell Bob Bradley that Claudio Ranieri got fired nine months after winning the EPL and pulling off one of the greatest stories in sport history. In you are managing soccer for the job security you need to learn more about the business of soccer.

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    • Sad, but true. In the end, coaches influence on the game mostly comes down to player selection. Other than that when things are going badly, it is more like arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. A couple good defenders, and a great attacking player are worth way more than any tactical or motivational genius coach who lacks those players.

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    • Or Brian Clough’s incredibly short stint at Leeds. DIdn’t stop him from achieving success at Forrest and Ipswich Town.

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  4. bob, let it go, man; no need to clap back at every subtweet. the more levien and kaplan keep talking, the more people will see they are the problem, not the managers.

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  5. All managers come and go. I think Bradley is a legend in his own mind but he has basically failed everywhere. He only lasted in US Soccer as long as he did cause they are slow to pull any coaches plug. Arena got it, BB got it and Klinsmann got it. Im sure Arena II will get it again if he slips.

    BB was not and is not a very good coach. If he put himself into a nowin situation then he only has himself to blame. He could survive in MLS someplace but not in the high profile positions he thinks he should hold. Maybe if nothing comes along after awhile he’ll pull an Arena and take a MLS job

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      • I think he failed at two of those places. Egypt didn’t qualify for the WC and Le Havre missed promotion. Egypt before Bradley had beaten Italy and lost only 4-3 to Brazil in the 2009 Confederations Cup. They have some talented attacking players. Maybe Le Havre might have won promotion had he stayed on.

  6. Bradley is a smart man, with undeniable class. However, he knew the ramificiations of taking this job, within this league, with that team.

    It’s weird to see a man like Bradley go X-Files when he’s fired. He also called his firing from the USMNT a mistake and even went so far as to give blame to Klinsmann for jockeying for his job. I suppose it’s the competitor in him, which I have no issue with, but take some responsibility for crying out loud.

    He was justifiably fired in both situations. Again, it’s weird seeing a man of this class sound petulant and absent of responsibility for the results/reality.

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  7. The owners gave Bob 11 matches, 0 transfer windows, and zero support in the end. I mean, we are talking about Swansea City 2016-17 not 3-4 years ago. This was like asking Haiti to qualify for the WC with the players they had. The only way they even had a chances was to play sound defense but their backline is shit and he had not chance to bring in his type of player to shore that up. Raw deal for Bob, I think if there hadn’t been such an outrage at his hiring by the supporters trust then he would have gotten more matches and maybe the winter transfer window. In the end they are going down anyway. The owners should resign along with the TD and all their front office and let someone new run the place. A disgrace of a club today and shame given how well run they look a few years back.

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    • I won’t disagree about it being a raw deal, BUT BB had to know what he was up against BEFORE he took the job. He agreed to it, and he should accept responsibility that it didn’t really work out. Now, it seems like he’s acting like a big crybaby, probably undermining both his future prospects anywhere as well as giving EPL clubs an excuse to pass on American coaches in the future. Bitter Bob.

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  8. It’ss a little surprising that Bob has not let this go, no matter how unfairly he thinks he was treated. It’s not going to make him more attractive to future suitors. And it doesn’t gel with my previous perception of him as a stoic, I-don’t-give-a-crap-what-others-say, kind of coach.

    As a side note, I hope Swansea gets relegated. So I guess I’m a little bitter too…

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