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Bradley not dwelling on Swansea City departure as he looks ahead to new chance

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Bob Bradley isn’t dwelling on the past. His tenure at Swansea City has been over for several weeks and, in the days and weeks that have come since his dismissal, Bradley has come to accept what happened during his Premier League stint.

Now, though, the task is learning from it, something Bradley is hoping to do as he prepares for whatever his next challenge may be.

Bradley was dismissed by Swansea after just three months in charge, signaling the end of a tumultuous tenure in the Premier League. He was given just 11 games to make his mark, and those 11 games ended with a 2-7-2 record that left the Swans firmly in the relegation zone.

“I still think about many parts [of what happened at Swansea City], plain and simple,” Bradley told The Guardian. “When you say ‘how quickly do you move on?’… from a professional side [you don’t move on]. I certainly spend time thinking over it, but having said that I don’t dwell on it. I think about it, reflect on it, to make me better, to improve.”

Bradley is looking to take that chance to improve when the time is right. He says he’s had discussions with teams in both Europe and the U.S. and that he is open to any type of opportunity. He’s looking for a chance to get to know a situation that sees both him and a potential club in unison on what needs to be done and what is expected.

As for the Premier League, Bradley isn’t so sure what may or may never come, but he doesn’t regret his Swansea stop or any other moves that came before it.

“I think it’s a possibility, for sure [that Swansea will be my only chance in the Premier League],” he said. “That part is out of my control, but I do worry, yes. I knew it was a tough task, but of course the opportunity to manage in the Premier League was something that I had worked towards for a long time. So I went for it knowing the difficulties.

“Look at the work I’ve done – the work I did with MLS club teams, the work I did with the U.S. national team, then what we achieved in Egypt, what we are able to achieve in Stabaek, and then Le Havre where we were a goal short of gaining promotion, and then all of that led to Swansea,” he says. “I think anyone who has really taken the time to get to know me, I don’t think they would be thrown off by the fact that in a short amount of time in the Premier League I wasn’t able to put my stamp on that team.”

Comments

  1. All due respect to Bob Bradley but his 86 day stop over at Swansea was nothing more than a complete, total disaster. Not only did he do immense damage to his own career but he has also made it infinitely harder for any American manager to get a top flight job going forward. It was a huge miscalculation on his part. He should have stayed at Le Havre and pushed forward with the efforts to get them promoted. Sorry,…but he should have realized that those players were not going to give him an ounce of respect. Furthermore, Clements success since succeeding BB is even more damning and spare me the transfer window argument.

    Sad thing is,…he was so close to becoming the US coaching trailblazer with Le Havre and a possible promotion to Ligue 1.

    Really disappointing. Perhaps Michael Bradley could have helped his father out by tweeting…”don’t do it,…stay at Le Havre!” Instead of tweeting about immigration.

    Reply
    • Brian, If Bobs very short tenure with swansea will make it infinitely harder for another American coach (who has no relation to Bob, other than being born in the same country) that is only an indictment on the Euro bias against Americans.

      Reply
      • Brian, I should have said I agree with that part of your original post. But I think there is a bias there regardless, Bradleys situation only amplifies it. And you’re right it isn’t fair. One mans success or failure should have no bearing on another mans simply because they fly the same flag. Surely Bob went to Swansea knowing the odds were stacked against him, good on him for having the confidence to take that risk. Hindsight is 20/20.

      • I think it is more a bias against non-traditional soccer countries, not specifically a bias against Americans. I don’t think it matters of the person is American, Canadian, Australian, Korean, Indian, etc. Their nationality will be a liability.

    • BrianK,

      You started fairly well then crash and burned incredibly quickly. His experience was a disaster and was an indictment of his naïveté (trying to play passing football without shoring up the defense). This was only exacerbated by how Clements is currently doing. That is it. If/when he gets another job in Europe, he will be fine, but EPL will not happen again.

      Reply
      • Anthony,

        Errr,….no. You assume that the players were taking BB seriously and were going play for him,…implement his style and tactics. The point is that they were never going to tune into BB and he was doomed from the start. That is the point. I didn’t crash and burn,…your a little full of yourself brother.

      • “Errr,….no. You assume that the players were taking BB seriously and were going play for him,…implement his style and tactics. The point is that they were never going to tune into BB and he was doomed from the start. That is the point. I didn’t crash and burn,…your a little full of yourself brother.”

        BrianK, what is this? Did I hurt your feelings? You know that we are all allowed to disagree with each other. I stated that your initial assessment is correct in that his stay was a total disaster, and made worse by the performance of Clements one he got control of the team. However, past that I completely disagree with your statements.

        You wrote “…Not only did he do immense damage to his own career but he has also made it infinitely harder for any American manager to get a top flight job going forward. It was a huge miscalculation on his part. He should have stayed at Le Havre and pushed forward with the efforts to get them promoted. Sorry,…but he should have realized that those players were not going to give him an ounce of respect…”.

        Bob Bradley’s goal, as he stated, was to manage at the highest level he could in Europe. He stated that his goal was to manage in the EPL. He got a near impossible chance to do it. There are only 20 spots with only about 5 or so becoming available each year. Do you know how many managers or ex-players want to manage in the premier league? It is almost like hitting a lottery of sorts. No other American developed managed has even been offered an interview opportunity. He had a shot. What was he supposed to say “no, let me see if I can get Le Havre up from Ligue 2 first”. Seriously!!!! That statement could amount to (1)he may never get that chance again (2) the owners or football directors might not come back to him again because they would probably look at him like he is afraid of challenge(s) or lacks confidence. He did well in Denmark and Ligue 2, he may get a chance at a similar level again (especially after one of his former bosses said after he got let go from Swansea). Wait until the off-season.

        In terms of making it harder for American managers or not getting player respect, that is beyond his control. He cannot nor should not waste his time with that. His success would not have opened the door to other Americans in management in any significant manner. Losing the way he did hurt a bit, but not much because no American manager was going to get a shot in the EPL with climbing up the ladder in the lower levels or other European leagues. For him to change the perception, he really would have had to blow the doors off in Swansea which they do not have the talent to do. In terms of players, the best way to win them over is win. Only way to do it.

      • LMFAO,….this reads like a f$cking novel! Who are you? Charles Dickens? “It was the best of times for Bob Bradley, it was the worst of times for Bob Bradley,…”

        “Did I hurt your feelings?” — your the one hammering away like a tortured soul on this. Laughable.

      • ..and yet you keep responding with nonsensical responses. Yeah, my answer was a little long because I quoted 2 paragraphs from you. However, keep responding. I enjoy this. I live to argue…I am a lawyer after all.

      • Jesus, it’s like I literally have to spell everything out for you. I just told you I don’t mind going back forth because I live for this (aka I am an attorney). Since when is that bragging or trying to impress some random a*s stranger on a blog who could easily be a 16 yr troll getting off on a keyboard? I just stated that fact in the back and forth we had because I like to argue and then provided additional evidence since the crux of my job involves getting in and resolving arguments. How is that trying to prove I am better than or impressing you?

        Again, I like to argue. If you want to continue to argue about your statement about Bradley, I will do it for days. Like I stated, I agree with the first half and disagreed with the 2nd half. I initially explained in a short response then went with a longer explanation after your snarky (according to my perception) response. However, if you want to continue to waiver and go in that personal direction, then I’ll be out.

    • “and spare me the transfer window argument”

      spare you the argument that clement has different players than bradley, including 3 starters (olsson, carroll, narsingh)? not sure why you wouldn’t want to hear that.

      i do think that bradley clearly didn’t do as good a job as he could’ve, mostly because he was insistent on playing attacking soccer when the club’s players and table position basically demanded that they just lock up shop and try to snatch a goal on the break. and the fact that a well-organized team is bradley’s bread and butter does indicate that the locker room wasn’t buying into him.

      but new players have a way of not only improving the product on the field, but also galvanizing the bench players as well. i think bradley would admit that his time at swansea was a failure, but he’s probably always going to be a little bitter about not being able to get the transfer window he (says he) was promised.

      Reply
      • Just think about that. Let’s assume he was promised the January transfer window and some money. That tells you how bad things really were at the club and how he was viewed. It was so bad,…and so obvious that no one respected him that the owners broke their promise and cut BB a big fat separation check. It was so bad that they weren’t even good no to give him the benefit of one transfer window. Furthermore,…you are assuming he was intending on signing the right players. Sure Bradley may have benefitted from the players that Clement has signed BUT he would have had to have asked Clement “who should I sign?”

      • @briank

        yeah, when someone (allegedly) breaks a promise to someone else, i don’t tend to blame the other person, but that’s just me. i’ve already said elsewhere that the only people who are giving americans a bad name here are swansea’s owners.

        “Furthermore,…you are assuming he was intending on signing the right players.”

        nope, it sounds more like you’re assuming he wasn’t. i was just saying he *could* have. i’m saying that bradley doesn’t get a “fail”, he gets an “incomplete” because he wasn’t given the chance he needed.

  2. I’ve always felt coaches get too much credit and too much blame for results. Research indicates that teams that pay the most do the best. In today’s world that means that teams who have spent the most on players will succeed. There are some outliers, like Leicester City (last year) and Chelsea (last year), but things have reverted closer to norm for those teams this year.

    In soccer, PSG has the highest average salary followed by Real Madrid, Manchester City, Barcelona, Manchester United and Bayern Munich. Some subtle differences do make a difference, but a team that spends like Leicester will not succeed for long at the top.

    You can argue the coaches have some say in which player to get at a particular salary level, but it is not the coaches who set the salary limit. Also since coaches do not often stay as long as it takes to accumulate a team full of players worth 50 million on the transfer market each coach is rewarded or punished by the decisions previous coaches made.

    Reply

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