Sacking Bradley won’t solve everything

First and foremost it’s definitely a good thing Bob Bradley has been given his marching orders. He was the wrong man from the start, it was blindingly obvious then and it is now. Shipping three goals or more in his eleven games in charge and only winning twice in what was a much easier run of games compared to Francesco Guidolin said it all.

However his sacking doesn’t guarantee much will improve at this stage. Whilst Bradley was completely out of his depth the real problem at this club at the moment is that our squad of players isn’t good enough. Whoever replaced Guidolin would have faced similar difficulties, no doubt they wouldn’t have done worse than Bradley but we may well have still been in the bottom three.

We must change tack when deciding who the next manager is. The last few appointments have been yes men, even Garry Monk to an extent because he was probably so grateful for the opportunity that he would have put up with conditions like not having the final say on transfers. Whoever is in next must be awarded that power. That’s what the real issue is here.
This transfer window is huge, our chances of survival depends on it. Fail to strengthen well and we have no chance. Ideally we need a new centre half, two full backs, a central midfielder and at least one winger. I’d be amazed if we did that much business and if we did they probably wouldn’t all come off.

But years of under investment have caught up with us and that now means that wholesale changes are needed and Huw Jenkins can’t be deciding who those players should be when our last few windows have been dreadful.

As for who do I want in I’m open minded. Anyone is better than Bradley and keeping us up is such a big task that I’m not convinced it’s achievable. It is interesting to see Harry Redknapp say he would consider it. He would represent a big change from what we usually go for but has good contacts and could be a short term option. If we want a long term man then Gary Rowett could be a sensible one, he’s worked well without money at Birmingham and if we went down I’d back him to have a chance of bringing us back up.

Ryan Giggs is a gamble like I said three months ago as anyone is who hasn’t managed before. Players would sign for him though, same as Steven Gerrard who is also mentioned. I can’t see either taking it though. Chris Coleman has always said he wouldn’t take the job and in our current predicament that surely won’t change so count him out.

Then we have two of England’s finest Alan Pardew and Roy Hodgson. I would definitely favour the latter here, Hodgson kept Fulham up a few years back and did well at West Brom, boring football don’t get me wrong but the Swansea Way is dead anyway so it doesn’t make much difference anymore. If it wasn’t I’d want Frank De Boer but he’s unlikely to want it now.

Whoever we decide they need to be in place by Saturday. They need as long as possible to try and sort this sorry shambles of a football club.