BRADLEY WISHES SWANS NEVER CALLED
Many a manager can look back on regrets from their career, whether that be to join a club, leave a club or sell a vital player. In the aftermath of Los Angeles FC recording an MLS debut 1 – 0 win over MLS Cup finalists Seattle Sounders, Bob Bradley has been reviewing the decision he made to join Swansea City in the English Premier League.
Bob Bradley’s admitted to ESPN’s Taylor Twellman that he had some regrets about the move to Wales. Bradley managed just eleven games in the Premier League, with the Swans mired in a relegation battle.
“When Swansea came, I knew the pluses and the minuses,” Bradley said. “Do I have regrets? I wish they hadn’t come and called, quite honestly, in that respect because the situation required real work and some time, and if they didn’t think I was the right guy, and everybody wasn’t on board — and ‘everybody’ needed to not just be the two American owners, but the chairman, the supporters’ trust and more of the supporters — look, if they didn’t think I was the right guy, they shouldn’t have called.
“Now, when they called, and I spoke to them and I told them how I felt, when the moment came to go for it? Yeah, I said, ‘Look, the hell, man, I’m going!’
“If you have second thoughts and doubts you don’t go anywhere. I wouldn’t have gone to Egypt, I wouldn’t have gone to Norway, I’d still be in college soccer.”
ROD FANNI STEPS INTO IMPACT BREACH
With new defender Zakaria Diallo suffering an injury that will curtail his ambitions for some five months, Montreal Impact’s Remi Garde has moved quickly to sign a replacement. Impact have announced he signing of French defender Rod Fanni. Cleverly, Fanni’s contract with Montreal runs to June 30th, 2018, with an option for the rest of the season.
The 36-year-old joins the Impact from Olympique Marseille. Fanni was a longtime Ligue 1 fixture, playing for Lens, Nice, Rennes and Marseille between 2002-15. In 2015, he moved to Qatar to play for Al-Arabi SC, and briefly appeared for then-English Championship side Charlton Athletic in 2016, before returning to Marseille.
Fanni, who also has five caps for the French national team, earned between 2008-10, has won two Coupe de la Ligue titles in his career.
“His arrival will allow us to fill the gap left by Zakaria Diallo’s injury,” said Impact head coach Rémi Garde in a club statement. “Rod will strengthen our defensive corps while bringing his extensive experience to the group. I appreciated his swiftness in positively answering our request and his desire to take part in our project as soon as he was released from his contract with Marseille. I am certain that his contribution will be important for our upcoming games.”
A GALAXY OF STARS BUT ONLY ONE ZLATAN
In the clearest indication yet that one of the very biggest names in all of professional football will make their way to MLS, Zlatan Ibrahimovic has commented on rumours of a move stateside.
“I did not know that several Swedes went to MLS,” Ibrahimovic told Swedish reporters recently, as quoted by The Telegraph. “That means it’s tempting to play in the United States. Los Angeles is a nice city and I’ve been there a lot on vacation. It is laid back. I think it’s rumours all the time [about my future]. When I play and when I do not play it is rumours. That’s good, that means I live.”
Despite returning from a serious knee injury, Zlatan hasn’t played in competitive action for the Red Devils in over two months and is expected to move on at the end of the season.
PERU LOOK TO MLS FOR PIECES OF WORLD CUP JIGSAW
With their first World Cup appearance in 36 years approaching, Peru’s national team is preparing with a couple of friendlies later this month and they include on a couple of MLS players as Orlando City midfielder Yoshi Yotun and Portland Timbers midfielder Andy Polo both received call-ups for Peru’s game vs. Croatia on March 23rd in Miami and against Iceland on March 27th at the Red Bull Arena.
Yotun has been capped 70 times for Peru, while Polo has made 15 appearances for La Blanquirroja. Both will be vying to make the roster, along with the Vancouver Whitecaps’ Yordy Reyna, when Peru play their first World Cup 2018 game against Denmark on June 16th.
LOOK AWAY LEE NGUYEN
Despite Nguyen wanting out, it’s Krisztian Nemeth who the New England Revolution have attempted to ship out as they have offered the forward to multiple teams over the past two weeks according to MLSSoccer.com.
The Revs acquired Nemeth last August, sending $200,000 in 2018 Targeted Allocation Money, $200,000 in 2018 General Allocation Money and a 2018 international spot to Columbus Crew SC in exchange for the forward, who was just returning to MLS after 18 months with Qatari club Al-Gharafa SC.
He was initially expected to play a significant role for the Revs this season, but sources indicate that head coach Brad Friedel doesn’t rate the Hungarian, who was on the bench but didn’t play in the club’s season-opening loss at Philadelphia over the weekend.
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