Day: October 3, 2016

By Brad Hubbard | @bradhubbard | 10.3.2016

Bob Bradley has done it. He became the first American to be named manager of a Premier League club. Bradley takes over Swansea City which is based in Wales but plays in the Premier League. It is another step in Bradley’s trailblazing career.

Bradley has found success in just about everyone of his coaching stops. He lead MLS’ Chicago Fire to an MLS Cup and US Open Cup title in their first season in the league and his first managerial job at the professional level. He later went on to coach the US Men’s national team and take them to the final of the Confederations Cup in 2009 and to the knockout stages of the World Cup2010.

He famously coached the Egyptian national team through a turbulent time (the Arab Spring) but failed to qualify for the World Cup. After that he made stops in Norway and France’s second division before scoring his historic new job.

As you can see, Bradley is absurdly qualified and has been considered for jobs in Premier League before. Most, including Bradley, would point to the inherent bias against American managers for being passed over for those earlier positions. Swansea City does have American owners but it turns out that chairman Huw Jenkins made the final call to hire the New Jersey native.

Bradley has to improve Swansea City fast and it won’t help that he will be under the every watching eye of the UK press. But he’s been there before so this should be nothing new to the trailblazing American.