The dust has barely settled on Bob Bradley’s brief, 85-day foray into English football management, and already all eyes are on who will next take up the mantle at beleaguered Swansea City.
The American gaffer was on a hiding to nothing when he walked through the doors at the Liberty Stadium, with Francesco Guidolin having done his best to keep things under control after the club elected to sell two of his best players over the summer: Andre Ayew and Ashley Williams.
With the games coming thick and fast this time of year, a swift appointment is necessary to plug the leak sooner rather than later, and there’s also the January transfer window to consider – possibly the only chance the Swans will have to adjust their trajectory and avoid drifting further from safety.
Swansea City are 19th in the table, with just 14 points won this season (Hull City sit below them on goal difference alone) and only three wins to their name, two of them against fellow-strugglers Sunderland and Crystal Palace.
Who can steady the ship, though? Well, here are FIVE options…
Gary Rowett
Out of all the potential candidates currently being touted for the South Wales club, Gary Rowett is by far the most surprising to be available. Sacked just before Christmas after the Chinese ownership at Birmingham City decided they preferred Gianfranco Zola, he left St. Andrews with the club in 7th position and looking at a second successive season of challenging for the play-offs. It’s interesting to note that, since his departure, the club have lost both their festive games and dropped to 11th, six points away from the top six.
Rowett is one of a few up-and-coming English managers in the game, having proved himself at lower league Burton Albion and then at Birmingham City where, despite budget restrictions and ownership issues, he was able to take the side successive top-half finishes in the Championship. There is no doubt that he will be itching for a chance to manage in the Premier League sooner or later.
Swansea chairman Huw Jenkins is known for giving unknown managers a chance, with both Roberto Martinez and Garry Monk coming in straight from their playing days, while, more recently, Michael Laudrup, Francesco Guidolin and Bob Bradley were all brought into English football for the first time by the South Wales club. He doesn’t have the top-level experience of other candidates, and he is not another Sam Allardyce who can all but guarantee survival, but perhaps it is his inexperience and unfamiliarity which could prove vital to their current mission.
Ryan Giggs
Ryan Giggs appears to be waiting for the right moment to step into football management after a wonderful career at Manchester United. His experience as a manager boils down to four games at the end of the 2013/14 campaign following the dismissal of David Moyes, and then his subsequent appointment as assistant under Louis van Gaal. He learned and developed under the previous incumbent at Old Trafford, as well as acting as an unofficial ‘player liaison’ which would have helped his man-management skills no end, before departing at the end of last season as Jose Mourinho arrived.
This isn’t the first time Giggs has been connected with Swansea City. They spoke with him more than once before appointing Bob Bradley prior to the current campaign, but there were indications that Swans’ chairman Huw Jenkins wasn’t ‘impressed’ with how the discussions went. His worth as a player, as well as his Welsh nationality, will surely play into his hands with Swansea City.
But the perennial question that the former midfielder (if, indeed, Swansea decide that he is the right man for the job) is whether this is the right club and the right time to be taking his first step into his managerial career. It could either go well – and he would be considered a hero – or they could fail to survive – and he would have stumbled before even having a chance to prove himself.
Harry Redknapp
Most football fans could be forgiven for thinking that Harry Redknapp had left the game for good after he departed QPR in 2015 citing an imminent knee operation as the reason he could no longer commit 100% to football management (as well as the other more controversial reason that he “didn’t know” who was on his side at the London club). His frequent appearances on BT Sport and what we can only imagine is a flourishing garden in Sussex give enough of an explanation to his life beyond the dug-out.
Redknapp has form. He has managed West Ham United, Portsmouth and Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League and, perhaps most relevantly, he has experienced relegation from the top-tier, once with Southampton and twice with Rangers. He is certainly the most experienced Premier League manager on the Swans’ radar, but he doesn’t come without controversy, a facet of his behaviour which may have prevented him from getting the England job ahead of Roy Hodgson once upon a time.
While Redknapp could be considered ‘past it’ in football terms, he could also be just the man Swansea City require in their current position – someone who has knowledge and experience of both ends of the table, as well as being a coach able to get results with both top teams (Tottenham) or suffering sides (QPR). He is something of a transfer-extraordinaire which will be helpful with January coming, but his controversial nature could make his appointment potentially catastrophic for a club already in jeopardy.
Alan Pardew
Alan Pardew is the most recent Premier League managerial casualty prior to Bradley, with Crystal Palace also opting to make a change before it was too late. Despite reaching the FA Cup final last season with the Eagles, 2016 was a bad year for the club as they won just six of 36 games in the calendar year, meaning they had the worst form of 2016 of all the 92 clubs in the top four divisions of English football. His sacking came with the words that “expansive football hasn’t worked” and that the club were going to “wind the dial back the other way”, which made sense once Sam Allardyce’s appointment was announced.
Like Redknapp, Pardew is no stranger to controversy, having been charged with head-butting Hull City midfielder David Meyler during a game as well as being involved in various skirmishes with other managers. It’s perhaps this nature which led to only 5.5% of Newcastle United fans wanting him in the job in a Sky Sports poll taken shortly after his arrival at St. James’ Park.
Pardew is a ‘boom & bust’ manager, indicating an inconsistency to his approach and an uncertainty about what he can provide a team. The thought process is that he could probably look after Swansea without the added pressure of relegation looming over them, but, if he came to the club hoping to be their saviour, fans wouldn’t be wrong to second guess the decision.
Jurgen Klinsmann
Jurgen Klinsmann is one of the outside runners for this job, not least because he comes offering the same background that Bob Bradley did; manager of the USA national side. Neither made any significant progress with the 28th-ranked side in the world, winning one Gold Cup each as their main achievement. But Klinsmann’s achievements with the side (particularly his work behind the scenes to help promote the sport in America) far outweigh the lack of them on the field of play.
He is capable of results – he took Germany to third place in the 2006 World Cup – but he is an unknown in club football, with just one season in charge of Bayern Munich in the 2008/09 campaign under his belt. His achievement of second place was sandwiched between two Bundesliga-winning seasons, as well as failure to win the German Cup which his predecessor did and successor would with a similar squad.
Klinsmann will always retain his legendary status as a player, and there are examples of former greats who have had successful managerial careers: Kenny Dalglish, Brian Clough, Carlo Ancelotti and Johan Cryuff to name but a few. But there are also flops as well: Paul Gascoigne, Ruud Gullit, Alan Shearer and, most recently, Terry Butcher, whose brief time in charge of Newport County saw him leave after just two months. Klinsmann will have to decide whether he wants to stick or twist on his reputation.
