Swansea stick to recent principles with latest appointment
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Although the identity of Swansea’s new manager may be a surprise to some, it’s easy to see why the south Welsh side have appointed Bob Bradley to succeed Francesco Guidolin.
After all, the 58-year-old is a compatriot of the Swans’ new American owners Jason Levien and Steve Kaplan, becoming the first Premier League manager from the United States. He’s also the latest in a line of left-field appointments at the Liberty Stadium.
Michael Laudrup and Francesco Guidolin were both startling foreign names to land in Wales in recent times. Even Garry Monk can be considered something of a shock hire, despite being promoted from within. At the time, the Englishman had zero managerial experience.
The same cannot be said for Bradley though, who lists an eclectic mix of jobs on his CV including the Egyptian national team, Norwegian outfit Stabaek and French Ligue 2 Le Havre, who he leaves in mid-table to take over at Swansea.
However, his biggest success on the touchline unquestionably came in a four-and-a-half year stint with the USA national team.
In that time, the side won the CONCACAF Gold Cup in 2007, finished as runner up twice more, collected silver in the Confederations Cup and reached the round of 16 in the 2010 World Cup.
At Stabaek he took a club with a maximum home capacity of 7,000 fans to the Europa League and only narrowly missed out on promotion in his first season with Le Havre.
On that basis, Bradley appears capable of continuing the tradition of administering a shot in the arm at Swansea.
Laudrup, Monk and Guidolin all provided short-term success, but none were able to grow roots. Questions remain whether Bradley is capable of doing so given that he hasn’t spent longer than two years in any one job since his USANMT days.
In the immediacy, though, surviving relegation is the American’s aim; a task that we rate as a 2/5 possibility.
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