Right, that's why we make it out of World Cup groups and they don't: because everything about us sucks and they're superior. Keep repeating yourself that. At least we've never been humiliated 4-1 in a R16 WC game.
Managing the US to one draw against England is hardly indicative of being a world class manager is it, I am sorry but to think that he only had to step into the Swansea job to start showing the English a thing or two about coaching is extremely arrogant. Some Americans claim that they get no respect when it comes to football but the English get the least respect in world football (see your comment on Southgate). The reality is that the Premier League has some of the very best managers in world football (from all sorts of different nationalities) it is also 153 years old, nobody thinks Bradley is sub-par but comparing managing the Egyptian national team or a second division Norwegian team or even the US national team to managing in one of the harshest environments in world football is daft, its not Bradley's shortcomings that were a problem it was his complete lack of experience of the Premier League, its the same lack of experience that would make him a worse choice for coaching the English national team than Southgate. I would suggest that a similar situation was the one Gary Neville found himself in when managing Valencia - an extremely experienced man who had won titles his whole career who simply had no experience with Spanish football.
You're beating up on a straw man. There were no American pundits saying Bradley was going to revolutionize English soccer or whatever. Everyone knew he was being hired as a Hail Mary by Swansea to try something new. At best, Bradley's supporters thought that he would be able to stave off relegation, then get some breathing room to rebuild the team. Swanseas's management is a mess, their fans are in meltdown mode, and their players are just as mediocre as they were before Bradley got hired. Bradley is a good (not great) coach. There's very little he could've done in this situation to make things work out. The idea that this mess tells us anything about American soccer is silly and ignorant.
From the beginning I didn't have much hope. I expected the players to pretty much ignore him and the team to be relegated. If anything, Bob did surprise me with some of his personnel decisions, but now I think he was forced into them based on what the players were showing in training. Basically, I bet some were clearly not paying any attention, so Bob couldn't risk it and started the ones who were less indicated, but who at least looked like they didn't hate him enough to sabotage the effort. Some day we may get his version of events there. I doubt it was a happy experience.
Swansea City had 4 points from 7 games (0.57 per game) before Bradley and improved to 8 points from 11 games (0.73 per game) under Bradley. 8 points from 11 games is a pace for 27.6 points per season, which guarantees a club to be relegated. In the last ten complete seasons, five clubs have finished with 27 or fewer points, including Portsmouth who would have had 28 points if they weren't penalized for entering administration, and none of those ten seasons had multiple clubs finish with 27 or fewer points. The average table position of the opponents Bradley faced was 10.4, and the average table position of the nineteen Premier League clubs other than Swansea City is 10.1, so Swansea City had an average opponent difficulty under Bradley.
I say "vastly" because, while much has been said about the domestic league being suspended, pundits fail to appreciate what the team looked like when he took over. Namely, having exactly 2 Egyptians under 30 with 10 or more caps at the time. Hassan Shehata's starting lineups averaged around 33 years of age at the end of his tenure. Build a team almost from scratch is difficult. Running a national team when the domestic league is suspended is difficult. But building a team almost from scratch while the domestic league is suspended? Each of the two problems makes the other a hundred times worse.
Agreed. Soon after Bradley was hired the pundits I was listening to were already discussing what a Bradley failure would mean to U.S coaching at large. Maybe Lalas or someone like that who's paid to be the crazy voice was saying something different, but I heard plenty of measured takes on the Bradley situation.
But he didn't almost build a team from scratch. He inherited one of the top ranked teams in Africa (elo rating ~30th) and had at his disposal (and depended on) experienced players like Aboutrika, Ghaly, Zaki, Abd Rabo, Zidan, Fathalla, Eid, Gedo, a couple GK's, etc. He also had a couple of world class young players coming through the system in Elneny and Salah. And while suspension of the domestic league certainly sucked, he made lemons out of lemonade and was able to bring his domestic players together for an extended "camp" where he scheduled and played something like 10 friendlies in the 2 or 3 months before he played a meaningful match, in this case a WC qualifier against elo 130th ranked Mozambique followed closely by another WC qualifier and a home and away African Cup of Nations qualifiers (which he lost to the lowly CAR, elo ~135th). He then had almost a full year before playing another meaningful match, time which allowed his important domestic players to find loans and permanent moves to other leagues. Again, I think Bob did a great job in Egypt in very difficult circumstances, but saying Egypt vastly overachieved while he was there is just nonsense. I mean he didn't play a team ranked even close to Egypt in a meaningful match (Guinea was ranked around elo 80th while the rest were in the 100's) until they met Ghana, and we know what happened then...
Most of those experienced players were about to retire. He had to replace almost all of them. Elneny and Salah were uncapped when Bradley was hired.
He was going to teach them how to make a penalty kick. And his final words before losing to West Ham were "did you get the soccer shoes I sent you, bro?"
Who said he was a world class manager? Who said this? All I ever saw was "f*ck, I hope he survives." The only person on this board who said anything other was an English guy who said he thought Swansea would end up mid-table. Which was responded to, with a couple of "uh, I think you're a little optimistic there, mate." Find me a quote that says anything remotely close to showing the English a thing or two about coaching What have the English done to earn respect? Iirc, the last time England won a knock-out game in the WC was in 1986. 30 years ago. Since then, their glory rests solely on a wonder goal by Gazza against Scotland, how many years ago was that? Regarding Southgate - find me a less experienced national team coach in the world. Out of 150 some odd footballing nations, there may not be one. The English are on about how much experience you need to coach in the PL. It helps in the WC, too, bruh. I never said he was ready to manage the PL. In fact before he got hired, I said the only way he'd get a PL job is with American owners. Actually, I think Bradley would be a better choice than Southgate. How long has it been since Southgate managed a match that mattered? Don't tell me age-group matches. Those are for developing, vetting, talent - more than winning. As far as Bradley not being English, so? You can't have a foreign manager? It wouldn't take him long to learn the talent pool. You're comparing Neville's managerial experience to Bradley's? You're comparing Valencia to Swansea?
How many points from safety were they when he took over? The points per match thing is difficult to extrapolate from at this point, imo. Middlesborough is at a point per match. Projects to clear safety. But, imo they are in big trouble. Sam will get Palace organized. So, Borough will be fighting Sunderland and Leicester for that 17th spot. I bet Norwich had more points than Borough at this point last season. Look, no one is surprised that he got fired. It was always clear that he had to get it done by Jan 3rd. He was off to a bad start in December. Worse, the losses were bad losses. No surprise. I'm just skeptical that it will help them, unless, as has been posited, the players quit. I'm very skeptical of the quitting claim. At the same time, have you ever seen worse set piece defending anywhere, at any level?
It sure didn't help Bradley that Barrow got hurt. He, and Sigardssun (sp) were the life of that team. Based on Bob having given his version of events from his firing from the NT many years ago, I imagine that someday we will get his version.
None of this is true. "Most" of the players I mentioned above played significant roles for Egypt and Bob up to his firing in November 2013 (Zidan being the only player who at first glance appears to have only played for Bob in 2012...Eid was on the subs bench for Bob's last 2 matches against Ghana...Fathalla also appears to have been out of favor). Also, Salah and Elneny both made their full national debuts before Bob was hired. Finally, as best I can tell there were actually at least 7 Egyptian player with 10 or more caps under the age of 30 when Bob took the job in November 2011.
Reading their boards you'd never guess Bradley had 0.73 points per game & Guidolin had 0.57. Their fans make it sound as if they were doing much better under the Italian.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Bilić on Bradley: "I saw [Swansea] improving. I watched their games, not only home games against Palace and against Sunderland that they won, I also saw the games against West Brom and against Middlesbrough. To be fair, when I watched the game against Middlesbrough, I hoped they were bad to be fair, but they were extremely good and extremely unlucky to be down one-nil after twenty minutes. So, [Bradley is] very calm, I see him on the touchline. He's always positive, even when we were winning two-nil or three-nil, so that's for me sign of big belief in himself, and big belief in his players, and they have to continue to work hard and continue to listen to him, and I'm sure they'll be alright. I don't know, but I know he's the right man to do it. It would be crazy for them to change the manager again."
Further to my point, 3 of the 8 players I named above scored goals against Ghana in the WC playoff while a 4th scored in their final WC qualifying group stage match against Guinea, a little more than two months before Bob was fired (immediately after said playoff against Ghana)...
That is a misleading stat. The team faced different opponents in different circumstances and three of Swansea's five summer signings (Borja Baston, Alfie Mawson and Mike Van der Hoorn) didn't actually make their Premier League debuts until after mid-September, which meant Guidolin was short-handed for most of his tenure.
Short handed? That's good for a laugh. All of those players were eligible for selection at some point during Guidolin's tenure (all but Mawson (signed Aug 30th) were signed before the season started) but the fact of the matter is that none of them are particularly good players right now, and no matter who was coaching them they wouldn't be helping Swansea in their quest for survival.
Van der Hoorn started twice for Guidolin, and was on the bench for every other game. Bob promoted Alfie Mawson from the U23s and gave him his debut. Borja Baston did struggle for fitness after a thigh injury. So, that's 1 out of 5 unavailable. --------------- Not to mention, if you actually cared about whether the stat was "misleading," you'd have mentioned that Bradley lost Ki-Sung Yueng to a broken toe after the second international break, and Federico Fernandez to a broken toe after the Tottenham game, and Jefferson Montero to an ankle injury, a broken hand and another hamstring strain, Leon Britton to a calf injury, and Modou Barrow to a virus. You could say Bob was "short-handed for most of his tenure."
I feel for Bob, but he knew what he was getting into. I imagine that he's happy he took the job, rather than wondering "what if?" But, for everyone else, the "Big Picture" consequences of his firing are minimal. If Bob succeeded, there is no way that PL teams would be hiring managers straight from MLS. American managers would have to serve long tours in Europe to get anywhere near the PL, even if Bob had returned SC to mid-table battlers. If Bob had succeeded, maybe - maybe - some Euro leagues would come after an MLS coach? I have a hard time believing it. For one, a couple of things about MLS make it difficult to have "star" managers. 1) the enforced parity from Salary caps. There aren't really the "big clubs" that you get promoted to. 2) Playoffs. There's a crap shoot element to who wins, and the regular season isn't critical. It's difficult for me to envision American MLS managers going to Europe without having been the NT manager. The only way an American (outside of being the NT manager) is going to rise through the Euro manager ranks would be a guy that spent his playing career in Europe and transitioned into being a manager. Like a Cherundolo, if he ever got a manager's gig. Or, longshot, like if Spector or Lichaj transitioned into managing after their playing career. Or, if a guy like Boca had stayed in Europe. Guys that were captains. And, Bob's success/failure has little effect on that. Let's take 2 scenario's 1) Bob is hired and fired in 85 days. 2) Bob was never hired by Swansea. Are the prospects for American managers any different? I think not.