In hindsight, Swansea City will surely regret making rash manager decision: View | OneFootball

Swansea City sacked Francesco Guidolin and replaced him with Bob Bradley in the autumn of 2016

After seven years in the Premier League, Swansea City were relegated to the Championship in 2018 after losing their way from what made them successful in the first place.

Swansea won promotion playing an attractive brand of possession football and that continued in the top flight, becoming a real success story in their early Premier League days.

However, their last few seasons were overshadowed by a number of managerial changes, with the club failing to have any sort of recognisable style of play, and relegation was no real surprise in the end.

One of Swansea's biggest mistakes came in the autumn of 2016, when Francesco Guidolin was sacked just months after keeping the club in the Premier League and after subsequently signing a new two-year deal.

Just months into his two-year deal, Guidolin was sacked and replaced by Bob Bradley, a decision which ultimately proved the wrong one.

Sacking Francesco Guidolin was a harsh move by Swansea City

Swansea City had enjoyed a successful first four Premier League seasons, comfortably avoiding relegation in each of the seasons, and had finished 8th during the 2014/15 campaign.

However, the 2015/16 season campaign is where things started to go wrong, and Garry Monk was sacked in December 2015 after a poor run of form. Alan Curtis subsequently took charge on an interim basis, and after over a month of searching for a new manager, Italian Guidolin was appointed until the end of the season.

Guidolin had never managed in England, but had managed the likes of Atalanta, Udinese, Monaco, and Parma in Italy and France. Having never worked in England, and having been out of work for two years, it seemed a strange appointment by Swansea, but it was one that paid off.

When he took over in January 2016, Swansea were just two points above the relegation zone, but he led the club to an 11th place finish, ten points above the relegation zone.

There were a number of notable results, including wins away to Arsenal and Everton, a 3-1 win at home to Liverpool and a 4-1 win away to a West Ham side that finished 5th, in what was the penultimate game played at Upton Park.

This was enough to earn a longer deal, and Swansea began their 2016/17 campaign with an away win at Burnley, before a difficult run of fixtures against the likes of Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool saw them fall to 17th.

At the beginning of October 2016, following a 2-1 defeat to Liverpool, Guidolin was sacked by Swansea, and was replaced by Bob Bradley on the same day.

The fixture list hadn't been too kind to Swansea, and Guidolin was sacked less than two months into the season. It was a harsh call, and it certainly proved the wrong one.

Replacing Francesco Guidolin with Bob Bradley was a really poor move

American boss Bradley had clearly been lined up by Swansea's American owners prior to Guidolin's sacking as he was appointed at the same time that they announced the Italian's departure.

To make matters worse for Guidolin, he was sacked on October 3rd, his 61st birthday, a move which didn't particularly go down too well with Swansea's fan base.

Bradley was set to become the first American to manage in the Premier League, and it was immediately a decision that the Jack Army disagreed with.

He did have pedigree as the USA manager, drawing to England in the 2010 World Cup and taking them to the Round of 16, but at the time of his appointment, he was managing French Ligue 2 side Le Havre, meaning it was a huge step-up to the Premier League.

If sacking Guidolin on his birthday wasn't insensitive enough, things got even worse when they unveiled Bradley at the city's Marriott Hotel, the same hotel the Italian had been living in, the 61-year-old nearly gatecrashing the American's press conference when returning to the hotel to collect his belongings.

It was clear to Swansea fans that Bradley was only appointed because of the club's American owners, not so much because of his managerial abilities, and he had a point to prove from day one.

However, results were woeful under Bradley, and Swansea won just two of his 11 games in charge, before he was sacked after a 4-1 home defeat to West Ham on Boxing Day.

He was given his marching orders after just 85 days, the fourth-shortest reign of any Premier League manager at the time, and sacking Guidolin to appoint Bradley proved a disastrous move.

From sacking Guidolin on his birthday to holding Bradley's press conference at a hotel where their former manager had been living, the entire situation made Swansea look a laughing stock, and the Jack Army still shudder at the mere mention of their former American manager's name.