Bradley breaks down barrier with Swansea job
American is first to manage a team in Premier League
Bob Bradley is a reluctant pioneer.
He is filled with pride at becoming the Premier League’s first American manager but aware his nationality brings preconceptions and myths about his credentials for the Swansea job.
“The American stuff I can cover in 30 seconds,” the former U.S. national team coach said Friday at his Swansea presentation. “Then I can push that out the door.”
As Bradley gathered his thoughts, there was silence for several seconds in front of reporters in a hotel in the South Wales city. The 58-year-old knows Americans are still viewed by close-minded fans as novices in international soccer.
“With football in the United States, we have always understood we have to earn respect,” Bradley said. “When I was with the national team, every time we got a chance to play in Europe, the players and I would understand, ‘Today is one more day where we can show what the game is like in our country.’ So in some ways this helps. I am proud of what I have been able to do.
“This stuff about pioneer. I’m not an American manager. I’m a football manager.”
Football, rather than soccer. Bradley made a wise but unnecessary distinction in a country that lays claim to having invented the game but gets prickly about the term “soccer” — despite its origins.
“I’m pretty sure that the English came up with this thing ‘soccer,”’ Bradley said, correcting a misconception to his English inquisitor.
“I like football much better. American football should have a different name, but I don’t think that will happen.”
The erudite Bradley sensed what his audience wanted to hear.
“I may slip up occasionally and call the pitch, the field — sorry,” he said. “But I’m not going to say soccer, don’t worry.”
He’s certainly nothing like Ted Lasso, the flamboyant parody of a clueless American soccer coach created by NBC to promote its Premier League broadcasts, deploying U.S. sporting terminology alien to football.
“That’s what we lived with on the U.S. team,” Bradley said.
“I don’t think it’s necessarily my job to take away your snobbery,” he added, engaging with reporters and expressing no sign of irritation.
Bradley left the French secondtier club Le Havre on Monday to take the Swansea job. Lifting Swansea away from the relegation zone would help Bradley win over doubters who hoped former Wales and Manchester United winger Ryan Giggs would replace Francesco Guidolin.
Having won only one of their opening seven league games, the Swans require an experienced manager. Bradley coached the U.S. from 2006 to 2011, including a trip to the 2010 World Cup. He coached Egypt’s national team from 2011 to 2013.
“I believe in my ability,” Bradley said. “I understand there are going to be skeptics, but I don’t care.”