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.”