What Bob Bradley's Swansea success (or failure) would mean for American soccer

Bob Bradley wasn’t buying it. “This stuff about ‘pioneer,’ ” he said at the press conference introducing him as the new Swansea City manager, making him the first American to hold such a position in the Premier League or any other major European circuit, “I am not an American manager. I am a football manager.”

His strategy to downplay the significance of his hiring is understandable. The task of succeeding in the job and keeping it for a while will be hard enough. There are currently just six Premier League managers who have held their positions for longer than two years. The turnover is relentless and, for Bradley, the peril of relegation is significant.

Swansea, currently above the drop zone on goal difference, has enough talent to stay up, but then better teams have been relegated. And survival alone may not be deemed sufficient to retain the position, since the Swans have grown accustomed to placing between eighth and 12th in each of the five seasons they’ve been back up in the Premier League. And if those performances flattered their means, on account of savvy and overachieving managers, Bradley won’t get the benefit of the doubt.

[ FC Yahoo: What Bob Bradley needs to do to keep Swansea in the PL ]

Because he is American. And because he is the first. And because his appointment is a big deal.

The soccer industry runs on perception. The reason Brazilian and Argentine players are consistently the most popular and expensive in the player market is that they are considered the best talent around, even though that is obviously not so in every player’s case. But they are the gold standard of players, because that’s how it’s been for decades. No American has previously gotten a shot as Premier League manager in large part because no American has previously gotten a shot.

[ FC Yahoo: Why Bob Bradley called out USMNT coach Jurgen Klinsmann ]

When there is no paradigm, the conservative forces in soccer’s front offices are not inclined to try to create one. Doing too many adventurous things in a field that has a hard time letting go of outmoded methods and embracing new things gets you run out of your job. It takes a club like Swansea, which has had to be creative and innovative to compete, to finally give it a try.

And perhaps it took the club’s troubled outlook at this early juncture in the season. Maybe it necessitated an American ownership, a factor that has been widely touted as a decisive one. Whether fairly or not, this – Americanism – will be the charge leveled at Bradley if he isn’t successful from day one. Even though, according to several accounts, he was simply the most impressive and qualified man interviewed.

Is he ever qualified. An MLS Cup with an expansion Chicago Fire. Five good years with the United States men’s national team, including a run to the final of the 2009 Confederations Cup. A World Cup qualifying campaign with Egypt that came within a game of succeeding against staggering odds, in the middle of a revolution and sectarian attacks that shut down the local league. An improbable turnaround at Stabaek, in Norway, from a cheap and young team that was preordained for relegation to the Europa League in just two seasons. A solid job at Le Havre, in France, which came within a lone goal of promotion.

“There’s not one person in Swansea who could care less about America,” Bradley claimed. “I understand there are going to be skeptics. Honestly, I don’t care.

“I love football, I love work and I believe in my ability,” he continued. “If someone wants to write I am an American and I don’t know s— I am not afraid of it. Has anyone ever said that directly? No, but you get that sense. I don’t carry it around with me every day. There are skeptics in all fields and social media. I don’t think it is my job to take away snobbery. That is going to be there. What I try to do is show how I work. I am confident who I am, how I work and my ideas on football. I’ve coached some big players.”

Bradley would prefer that his record is assigned to him alone, and projected only onto his reputation. It isn’t his job to kick down doors for his countrymen, although he has. Perhaps he’d sooner not worry about pioneering because being first at things adds further and unnecessary weight to a job. When you’re first at something, your rope is short and your parameters tight. Or perhaps he wants to insulate any American coaches trailing in his wake and slipping through those opened doors from his potential failures – although Bradley isn’t one to think like that.

No matter how hard he runs away from it, Bradley did get there first. And if he doesn’t live up to expectations, wherever those are set, he’ll be viewed as confirmation of every preconceived notion that the reason there had never been an American manager is because Americans are no good at managing.

“We’re still growing as a football country, there’s no two ways about that,” he said in his pre-game press conference on Thursday. “We’ve made progress. Anyone who pays attention knows that.”

So why has it taken so long for an American to arrive at the elite level in coaching? “Sometimes you have to work and get experience and hope that someday you get opportunity,” Bradley said. Yet Ryan Giggs, a retired superstar whose only experience is assisting two Manchester United managers who failed badly, was believed to be a front-runner for the job. Only an American needs to claw his way into such an opportunity because it hasn’t been done yet. A Welshman with a famous name is expected to get it as a matter of course.

“I think in the future, of course, American coaches can coach in top leagues around the world,” said American goalkeeper Brad Guzan to NBC. “But they need to have a path to get them there and Bob has been successful in all his previous clubs. Like anyone, Americans need the opportunity, but they also have to prove they can do it at the highest level.”

Bradley’s arrival at the summit of the game is essential for the sport stateside. Because if the United States is truly going to be a world power, it needs coaches who have exposure to the game at the very highest level beyond the quadrennial cup of coffee at a World Cup. It needs a fair few of them. Bradley’s success could invite more of them into the tight orbit of that revolving door. His failure would make it that much harder for anybody else to force his way in.

On Saturday, Bradley makes his Swansea debut, away at Arsenal no less. “I will take a few seconds to look around, look into the stands, and then very quickly get my mind back on the game,” he said Thursday. “I’m not one to spend a long time on that stuff, but without a doubt I will take it in.”

He should. He’s earned it several times over. But then both his club and his country need him to deliver.

There are more careers riding on it than his own.

Leander Schaerlaeckens is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @LeanderAlphabet.