BOB BRADLEY SACKED FROM SWANSEA!
Bob Bradley was the first and most likely the last American manager to take control of a club in the top flight of England. His short tenure at the Welsh club ended in disaster after losing the respect of the playing staff and earning the nickname Ronald Reagan if media reports were correct. News broke across the States to young and hopeful coaches of one day managing in the Premier League. The dream only just got tougher.
Step up... Jacob Hurley.
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The 31 year old from Houston, Texas has aspired to be a soccer player all his life. During the early years of his school he suffered peer pressure to follow a sport he didn't love. American football. While his parents watched the Super Bowl and forced him too, he'd stay late up night to watch his beloved Nottingham Forest whenever they were on TV. Years of turmoil finally broke him where he stood up to his family and insisted on following his dream of playing on the soccer team at school. Taking aback and heartbroken that their only son wouldn't follow his dad in having success in the high school football team, they granted him his wish.
He never looked back. He enjoyed winning the high school leagues and cups with the soccer team playing as a right back. He focused on his studies and got good grades. He won his family around when they saw he was happy. He went to university and married his high school sweetheart, Jennifer. Unfortunately at the time, American football was in a dire state. He was scouted by a few teams but suffered an ACL injury when he was twenty two. This set him back and sent him in a downward spiral where he worked in a car repair factory and still lived with his family. Jennifer got her qualifications to become an accountant and a lucrative contract with a firm in Washington. The distance apart caused the relationship to break and he was alone and struggling to make a living. The dream seemed long dead.
When he was twenty eight and suffered various drinking problems, he decided to visit a shrink. This helped for a year and settled him down but his dad passed away when he was thirty which triggered the drinking again. This finally led him to be laid off at the factory. When his birthday on the 31st of September came around, he was sleeping on his friends coach after being kicked out by his grieving mum. She didn't like to see her son suffering. He had a few more menial jobs which never lasted up until June 2016.
June 2016 was a big month for him. He was two months sober and the meetings with his shrink were helping. His mother let him back into the house after seeing the improvements. Even if it was only temporary which he feared, he made it count. He went on the computer everyday and scoured jobs he could do. The TV was next to him one day where an advert speaking about following your dreams. This itself didn't trigger what was about to come.
The day went on by before he was told by a friend about a high school reunion. It was a good idea to get out the house and test his resolve against the drink. So he went. There he relived his memories. The soccer team winning trophies and the cabinet still on show. He met the old soccer coach and had a deep insightful talk about life, the future and the beautiful game. The coach joked about him taking his job when he retires which triggered something inside Jacob Hurley. Why wait until his old coach retired? Why not find jobs out there now? So he did. The day turned and it was now the 1st July.
This was before Swansea hired and fired Bob Bradley yet while one American legacy tarnished perhaps another one was just getting started. He went online and investigated every crevice, every country with a potential managerial job where he didn't need any experience. Even if he just got an interview it'd be considered a success.
Fifty nine openings. Some big clubs like Wolfsburg, Birmingham and Sparta Prague. Why not dream big? Of course he'd get nowhere but it was the motivation to apply. Many of the clubs were none he heard of. If he were to get an interview however, he'd do his research. His future was only just beginning and life for the first time in ten years seemed promising.
[Hopefully this will be a long-term save and starting unemployed. I went a bit crazy on his back story but hopefully that'll progress with the more success he gets!]