After firing a manager who didn’t get much of a say in their ill-planned summer transfer window, Swansea City went next level with their man management.
They fired a manager who didn’t get a say in his players at all.
Bob Bradley has been sacked as manager of Swansea City after just 11 matches in charge of the Premier League’s Welsh outfit.
Eleven matches.
[ EXCLUSIVE: Bradley issues first statement ]
Swansea seemed forced into keeping Francesco Guidolin after he saved the club from relegation last season. Chairman Huw Jenkins kept the last word in transfers, then let Andre Ayew and Ashley Williams walk without much in the way of proper replacements (Read a take on those errors here).
That was especially true for Williams, the club’s best player last season and a leader in Wales’ surprising run deep into EURO 2016.
Bradley said he was going to “go for it” until the transfer window, and the American did that justice. While Swans defense continued to fail and gave up even more goals, Bradley’s attack doubled its production.
Updating the numbers following Swans’ 4-1 loss to West Ham on Boxing Day, this is the club’s season:
Under Guidolin
1W-1D-5L (.57 points per game)
Goals scored: 6 (.85 per)
Goals allowed: 12 (1.71 per)
Under Bradley
2W-2D-7L (.72 points per game)
Goals scored: 15 (1.36 per)
Goals allowed: 29 (2.63 per)
Guidolin’s feast-or-famine run saw a home loss to Hull City and a home draw vs. Chelsea, and was packed with tough fixtures. Though Bradley’s started with Arsenal, even more short-sighted in terms of giving a coach a good start; Then again, Guidolin was seen by the press in the building just before Bradley was introduced, a bizarre bit of organization.
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Bradley’s run degenerated in the second half, at least defensively. Swans held Watford to a 0-0 and went to Everton for 1-1 before outlasting Palace 5-4. Though they’d add a blowout of Sunderland, Swans finished their run with Bradley having allowed three or more goals in five of six, thrice conceding four-plus markers.
Bradley’s firing isn’t an alien decision in the Premier League, where older managers are recycled and new names rarely get anything longer than a short leash.
.@liam_mchugh and @The2RobbiesNBC discuss Swansea City's decision to part company with Bob Bradley #PLonNBC pic.twitter.com/XDTf8I3Ra8
— NBC Sports Soccer (@NBCSportsSoccer) December 27, 2016
But with the full acknowledgment that this is an American site, defending Bradley is a lot easier than having Swansea’s back here. After all, Swans fired Garry Monk last December and didn’t hire Guidolin until weeks into the January transfer window.
When you look at clubs who’ve made two bonafide managerial changes in recent seasons, here’s what you find:
Aston Villa (2015-16) -- Tim Sherwood --> Remi Garde --> Eric Black
Fulham (2013-14) -- Martin Jol --> Rene Meulensteen --> Felix Magath
Newcastle United (2008-09) -- Kevin Keegan --> Joe Kinnear --> Alan Shearer
Portsmouth (2008-09) -- Harry Redknapp --> Tony Adams --> Paul Hart
Of those four sides, only one carrying an asterisk stayed up: Portsmouth lost Redknapp when Spurs bought him out. Pompey finished seven points clear of the drop.
[ MORE: Liverpool batters Stoke ]
Of course, a team has to be fairly miserable to fire two managers in a season. It helps to be unorganized.
Firing Bradley isn’t a massive surprise given the financial dangers of a relegation campaign, but doing it without giving the boss a single transfer window to fix its miserable back line is shocking. Bradley was pried from another club, Le Havre, and given assurances he’d be able to fix the roster.
Change is almost a given in the Premier League, and Bradley really wasn’t given a chance. It’s easy to say that in retrospect, but hiring a man and not giving him a window to fix what ails Swansea is absolutely shocking. Unless we learn of full-scale dressing room hatred, it’s difficult to apply logic to hiring Bradley and firing him within a couple months.
Bournemouth at home and Crystal Palace away are next, and clearly the short-term thinking from the board is that a “new boss boost” could help them take points from perceived relegation opponents (Nevermind that Bradley oversaw “six-point” wins over Sunderland and Palace, losing to Boro and drawing Watford).
But what comes after that, when the fixtures go Arsenal home, Liverpool away, Southampton home, Man City away? With this back line, is life going to get any better?
If so, and it happens without a full overhaul of the defense, then the egg’s on our face. We’re just not expecting to need any towels.
