Like flopping in a Hollywood blockbuster, failure in the Premier League can be difficult to erase, given the number of people who have watched you flounder. But for every Hayden Christensen there is a Natalie Portman, and Bob Bradley is hoping that he will, over time, fall into the latter category.
Make no mistake, Bradley flopped at Swansea City. He lasted just 86 days as manager of the Welsh side, joining them when they were teetering just above the bottom three and leaving them joint-bottom. Whether or not he was a victim of circumstance, the American’s name has gone down in infamy alongside the likes of Rene Meulensteen, Les Reed and Sammy Lee, with his reign among the shortest in Premier League history.
“I still think about many parts [of what happened at Swansea City], plain and simple,” he admits. “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.”
It’s impossible to speak to Bradley and not feel a tinge of sympathy. Not that he needs sympathy. With more than 35 years of coaching experience behind him, the American will likely prosper again, but Swansea City should have been the culmination of his career. Bradley waited for a long time his chance in the Premier League, but when it finally came it was over in less than three months.
“I think it’s a possibility, for sure [that Swansea will be my only chance in the Premier League],” he says. “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. The way it went, the way it was covered…” Bradley tails off, struggling to find the words to articulate how things so quickly went against him, adding his belief that another US coach would still be given a fair shot in the Premier League, despite the anti-American invective he faced from some quarters.
English football, particularly the Premier League, has a habit of hastily throwing managers on the scrapheap. It’s a fundamental flaw of the country’s fast and furious approach to the sport. More often than not, coaches are given one, and only one, chance to prove themselves. In England, Luis Enrique probably wouldn’t have ended up a Champions League winner having failed at his first club. Antonio Conte wouldn’t have got a sniff of another job having been relegated in his first season as a manager.
So while Bradley might never work again in the English top-flight, he remains confident that outside the Premier League others will come calling. “Look at the work I’ve done – the work I did with MLS club teams, the work I did with the US 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.”
And so Bradley is now scoping out his next job, opening up about the process. He speaks about discussions held with the Norwegian FA recently about the national team manager’s position. “I worked five years with the USA and two years with Egypt, but it would still be for me my preference to work in club football,” he adds. Bradley is also candid about talks he has held with Los Angeles FC’s ownership group, stating that despite the club not entering MLS until 2018 he would be willing to wait that long to get back into management if it was “the right situation.”
“I’ve had some discussions in both Europe and America,” he expands. “I’m always open to new things. I always feel like if someone has an interest to speak, it’s an opportunity to get to know them and to make sure they know a little bit about who I am and what I’m all about. Whether or not the opportunity is imminent, that kind of thing is important.”
Of course, were Bradley to make the move to MLS he would be returning to a country very different to the one he left nearly six years ago following his dismissal as US national team boss. Donald Trump is now president, with his infamous attempts at a travel ban transcending Washington DC and politics. That’s a subject Bradley’s son and USA captain Michael Bradley was particularly strong on, expressing “how sad and embarrassed” the ban made him as an American.
“Michael and I have talked about it a lot,” says Bradley. “I was very proud of the way he handled it. The way this has been handled is not what America is all about. So yes I feel very strongly about it.” Not that he seems especially concerned about the impact Trump could have on the reputation of American soccer on the world stage. “I don’t think that will take away from the respect people have for the way the game is growing in the country.” Given the way US soccer as a whole has responded in disgust, he’s probably right.
For now, though, Bradley is content with broadening his horizons, an ethos that has come to define his career as a trailblazing coach. He has visits to clubs around the world lined up, chats with some more teams to come. But for all that Bradley seems to enjoy scoping out his next challenge, his irrepressible nature gets the better of him. “If I had the chance to be back on the field this afternoon, I would do it.” His next job can’t come quick enough.
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