If the decision to sack Bob Bradley isn’t made in the next 48 hours, as the Daily Mail has reported, it will certainly come down to Saturday’s match against Bournemouth. Bradley was only appointed on October 3, and his reign has been all of 11 matches but such is the nature of managing in the Premier League.
After the Bournemouth match, Swansea will only have 19 remaining matches with which to reverse their EPL fortune. Time is already running out on a club that’s managed only 12 points in 18 matches. With Bradley at the helm, they’ve only won two games in 11, with Saturday’s disastrous 4-1 capitulation to West Ham leading many fans to call for his firing.
Apart from Swansea’s 3-0 victory over Sunderland at the beginning of December, Bradley’s Swans have shown none of the fortitude necessary to survive a relegation battle. Most damning under Bradley is the glut of goals they’ve allowed — in the 11 matches, they’ve given up three or more goals on seven occasions.
It’s not all been Bradley’s fault, of course. The losses of Jonjo Shelvey (last January), Andre Ayew, Bafetimbi Gomis and Ashley Williams have left Swansea with a distinct lack of leadership and natural spine.
While Gylfi Sigurdsson remains inscrutable in midfield, the defense is a shambles and neither Fernando Llorente nor Borja Baston appear to have enough goals in them to guarantee surival.
While Swansea’s owners are understood to be hesitant to make their second managerial change of the season at the midway point, a glance at their upcoming fixtures makes it more than obvious why a decision must be made.
The Swans next three matches will prove pivotal in their season — against Bournemouth, Crystal Palace and Hull City.
Following that stretch of winnable games, Swansea take on Arsenal, Liverpool, Southampton, Manchester City, Leicester and Chelsea in a brutal run over January and February.
While supporters of Bradley had hoped that he’d act as a trailblazer for American coaches in England, his lasting legacy, at this point, would be no more than the ridiculous discussion over his use of Americanisms (“PK”, “road game”) by the British press.
The worst news for Bradley? That might be the fact that oddsmakers have Jurgen Klinsmann as the favorite to take his job…again.
