The_Guardian_-_2016-12-29

There simply was not the time for him to make a case either way, although that is not the same as
suggesting he was the right man in the first place. Kaplan and Levien overestimated two things when
throwing Bradley in at the deep end. First, the capability of a squad that had been grievously
weakened across the previous four transfer windows; second, the goodwill of a fanbase whose pride
in a club that had been a model for progressive, lucid ownership had taken a hit in the last 12 months.
Maybe they overestimated Bradley too, even though his appointment always seemed a shot in the
dark. In hindsight, Swansea should have sought an experienced, unsexy Premier League head upon
sacking Francisco Guidolin. They may not have brought back the old brand of stylish football the fans
craved but they may have been better equipped for a relegation fight. If Bradley, or any similar
mouldbreaking newcomer, was to be the choice then it needed to go hand in hand with an acceptance
that long-term change might have to include considerable short-term pain.
Yet Kaplan and Levien clearly had neither approach in mind, which makes their recruitment and
subsequent treatment of Bradley all the more difficult to understand. This was less the failure of an
American manager in the Premier League than a failure of American owners – and that, in itself, has
its place in a wider trend of remote, ill-considered decision making by foreign board members in
British football rather than being a comment on their specific nationality.
Bradley is a bright man and was aware of the focus his arrival would attract in Britain, where some
stigma still exists around the US game. So he gave the media little rope to hang him with and made a
favourable impression, answering questions fully while making time to create one or two deeper
professional connections. Yet when things are going wrong you are only a slip or two away from a
change in mood and his use of “road game” and “PKs” when speaking after his penultimate match, a
3-0 defeat to a mediocre Middlesbrough side, prompted the kind of overblown derision that had
never felt a million miles away.
At that point, Bradley was forced to defend himself for the first time. “It wouldn’t make sense if I
sounded like everyone else,” he said before the West Ham match that would seal his fate. “I have
come here to be myself. I am a football man. What counts is that what I say resonates with the
players.”
But that did not happen to the extent required. Perhaps Swansea’s players simply lacked the aptitude
or good grace to take in the words of a manager whose message during spells with Egypt, Stabaek, Le
Havre and the US men’s national team was well respected for its clarity. The one time he picked the
same team for consecutive games Swansea followed a respectable 1-1 draw at Everton with a
chaotic 5-4 victory over relegation rivals Crystal Palace; the rest of the time Bradley chopped and
changed a side painfully thin on quality at either end of the pitch. He needed to hit upon a consistent
formula quickly but never gave the impression of knowing how best to set up a team that
haemorrhaged goals.
That was not all his fault; not much of this sorry tale was but it is still hard to see Bradley getting
another run at this level soon. Speculatively, his best hope for another crack at British football might
be to work with a floundering Championship side in need of a longer-term run-up to a promotion
campaign. It would still take tangible success in that scenario to escape guilt by association with a
Swansea regime that risk alienating all around them.