【2016 Archives】

016 ArchivesEnglish Premier League historically represents the pinnacle of professional men's soccer. American men's soccer, historically, represents mediocrity.

Now, for the first time ever, an American will manage a Premier League team.

Premier League club Swansea City named Bob Bradley as its new manager after sacking former headman Francesco Guidolin just seven matches into the current season. Now let's get into what it means, and what it doesn't.

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Bradley formerly managed the U.S. Men's National Team (and is the father of national team midfielder Michael Bradley). Bradley the elder most recently coached Le Havre in the French second division. He's also managed in Norway, Egypt and Major League Soccer. His hiring at Swansea, announced Monday, was met with excitement among American soccer fans -- the appointment does make history, after all.

But, as rounded up by Nate Scott at FTW, Bradley's hiring was also greeted with immediate skepticism and derision by other observers. Here's a taste.

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Stoking conspiracy theories is the fact that Swansea is owned by Steve Kaplan and Jason Levien, a pair of Americans who took over the club this summer.

Meanwhile, Bradley faces an uphill climb -- Swansea won just one of its first seven matches this season under Guidolin, who is Italian, and currently wallows at 17th place in the 20-team league. Bradley's new deal runs through the 2018-19 campaign.

But the move is undeniably exciting for American soccer fans for reasons that extend beyond Bradley's history-making hire.

Chrisitian Pulisic, a teenage phenom from Pennsylvania, is currently playing a major role for German powerhouse Borussia Dortmund. Now, with Bradley helming a Premier League side, American fans can track a pair of countrymen playing real roles for major clubs across the pond. That's fun!

Speculating about when Bradley would get an opportunity for a major European club had been a popular parlor game for some time.

"What it amounts to is, this part of you — on the inside — wants to show people what you can do," Bradley told The New York Timesin January. "You want to prove yourself. You want a chance."

Now he's got the chance, and we'll see what he can do.

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