Former USA and Watford star Jay DeMerit has been giving his verdict on Bob Bradley’s appointment as the new Swansea City manager.
Swansea sacked Francesco Guidolin on Monday
The Swans sacked Italian Francesco Guidolin on Monday and immediately replaced him with former USA manager Bradley.
The Welsh side have not won in the Premier League since the opening day of the season and are 17th in the table with just four points from a possible 21 so far.
Bradley, who names Egypt and Norwegian side Stabaek amongst the teams he has managed, leaves French second-tier side Le Havre to succeed Guidolin, who was only appointed in January.
The club’s hierarchy reportedly spoke to several potential candidates, including former Wales captain Ryan Giggs.
Bob Bradley
The 58-year-old American will take over a Swansea side who have lost their past three league matches and find themselves above the relegation zone only on goal difference.
He also becomes the first ever American to manage in the English top flight.
And one of his former players DeMerit, who played in the Premier League for Watford, has backed Bradley to succeed and warned Swansea’s stars he won’t be afraid to drop big names.
Former Watford and USA star Jay DeMerit with Bob Bradley
“I think it’s a well deserved appointment,” DeMerit told Sky Sports News.
“Anyone that follows the game knows that it’s a massive step (up from Ligue 2) and I think Bob Bradley will know more than anybody that it’s a massive step.
“He is one of the true students of the game, he constantly studies the game, he literally took a DVD player everywhere he went watching games, studying what’s going on out there and I think he’s a tactician in that way.
“(He’s) not popular as far as some of the choices he makes in his line-up to make the 11, you know maybe there was a guy with a big reputation that, someone that the Americans expected to play but (it’s like) he gave me my chance when I was more or less an unknown and stuck with me because I fitted into the system maybe better than the bigger name defenders did but then we ended up winning more games.
“Having the guile and the confidence in himself to make hard decisions I think he was able to do that with our national team and I think he will do that here at Swansea.”
Big step up: Bradley
Bradley started his managerial career with the Ohio Bobcats in 1981 and took charge of his national side for five years between 2006 and 2011.
His first game in charge doesn’t get much tougher, away to title hopefuls Arsenal at the Emirates on October 15th.
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