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What Bob Bradley's hiring by Swansea City means for American soccer

    by John Smallwood
    Published 
Swansea City of the English Premier League is not the equivalent of the Cleveland Cavaliers of the NBA.
Still, the Swans hiring former United States men’s national team coach Bob Bradley as manager on Monday is the soccer equivalent of the Cavaliers hiring long-time European League coach David Blatt back in 2014.
Both entered top-level leagues where their success in “lesser” areas of the sport were greeted with skepticism.
Despite winning coach of the year honors for the top leagues in Israel and Russia and being the 2014 EuroLeague Coach of the Year, Blatt was not so subtly accused of not having the coaching pedigree to succeed in the NBA.
Even after Blatt coached the Cavaliers to the 2015 NBA Finals he was viewed as the coach who needed to get out of the way of superstar LeBron James.
Blatt was fired during the 2015-16 season despite having the best record in the Eastern Conference (30-11) at the time. His assistant, Tyron Lue, who had no previous NBA head coaching experience, was promoted and coached the Cavs to their first NBA title.
Swansea City has never been a Premier League challenger. Its realistic goal each season is to try to find a way to avoid relegation.
Bradley’s hiring, however, has raised the same kind of eyebrows in European soccer circles that Blatt’s did around the NBA.
Bradley is an American-born and American-learned coach. His coaching in Norway and the second division in France was fine, but it doesn’t mean the United Kingdom thinks he is ready for the Premier League.
His having won a Major League Soccer Cup and U.S. Open Cup with the Chicago Fire plus having led the United States to the 2006 and 2010 World Cups does not hold a lot of weight in England.
The Premier League has just recently become accustomed to having American players come across the pond. Former USMNT captain John Harkes was the first American to play in the Premier League in 1992 after Sheffield Wednesday won promotion from the First Division.
We’ll see how it reacts to having the first American coach. Well, at least, Swansea City is in Wales and not England proper so it’s not a total sacrilege.
“We are delighted (Bradley) has agreed to join us,” Swansea chairman Huw Jenkins said. “He is highly regarded as a coach and has a wealth of experience on the international and domestic front.
“He is well aware of the club’s footballing philosophy and will provide us with strong leadership qualities and a renewed belief to compete at this level.”
Despite Jenkins' enthusiastic welcome, many fans on Swansea’s Facebook page complained that Bradley only got the gig because a consortium led by Americans Jason Levien and Steve Kaplan purchased controlling interest of Swansea in July.
“Yanks,” “Bloody Yanks” and “American nepotism” were some terms that trended.
Nevertheless Bradley’s appointment represents a chance for American soccer to gain more respect in Europe and more importantly, possible opportunities for more American coaches.
If Bradley succeeds, Americans will get more looks for assistant coaching jobs in Europe, which could lead to head coaching opportunities there.
Just as American players going to bigger leagues in Europe is helping to improve the growth of the game, Americans getting to coach with teams in top leagues in Europe will add to the development.
The techniques they learn working in the best leagues in the world will ultimate be brought back to the United States.
“To go to the Premier League on many levels is special,” Bradley said. “It’s still an opportunity for me, for my family and for American football. That’s important.”
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    John Smallwood
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