On the pitch 1-Looking beyond Ahli in rebuilding the team Bradley would be facing one hell of a task trying to reestablish an Egypt team that have been plagued by poor results and off-form stars during the few months at the end of Hassan Shehata's reign. Throughout his successful tenure, Shehata has been mainly relying on the services of in-form Ahli players like Mohamed Abou-Treika, Ahmed Fathi, Wael Gomaa and Emad Meteb. However, the slope of the league champions has not been on the up lately, even though they are relatively dominating the domestic scene, but the fact remains that Ahli are out of form. Now Bradley has to look beyond the red shirt of Manuel Jose's team, and given the scarcity of Europe-based Egyptians, the domestic league has to be studied hard by the American. 2-Discovering a new talisman Abou-Treika has been undoubtedly Egypt's talisman during the Shehata era, but he veteran forward has now become a shadow of the player he was three years ago. While the search continues for a new Abou-Treika, an understudy tipped for long to become Egypt's next big thing is the flamboyant Shikabala. It is amazing that a talent like Shikabala, who has arguably been Egypt's top domestic player for a while, has yet to make a name for himself on the international stage. The Zamalek ace, who topped the league's scoring charts with 13 goals last term, has only scored once for Egypt in a low-profile friendly in Kuwait four years ago. Shehata couldn't get the best out of the gifted number 10 in the Egypt shirt; now Bradley has to apply the right system in order to find an alternative to the fading Abou-Treika and his ‘Golden Generation'. The same goes for Egyptian Premier League stars like Ahmed Abdul-Zaher, Abdullah Al-Saied and Walid Soliman, who are all yet to be recognized as established internationals, despite some promising club performances. 3-Youngsters The process of injecting young faces into a national side is anything but easy, yet it will be an essential step for Bradley in the course of rebuilding the team. The 53-year-old will have to be working cooperatively with Olympic team boss Hany Ramzy, who has the future of Egyptian football at his disposal. Following the U-20 World Cup in Colombia and with the 2012 Olympic Games qualifiers approaching, the names of Ahmed Hegazi, Mohamed Salah, Omar Gaber and Ahmed Al-Shennawi will no more be put under the status of hot prospects for the future. Off the pitch 4-Fans, the foreign coach dilemma and the American agent! One big hurdle ahead of the American will be dealing with the tough mentality of football fans in Egypt, especially when things aren't going well on the pitch. Bradley must be aware that patience is not an option in his new mission, given the highly temperamental nature of the Egyptian fan, plus the increasingly edgy atmosphere arising from political instability in the meantime. If things go well for Egypt on the pitch, everyone will hail Bradley as the American savior, but as soon as fans begin to feel any signs of stumbling, no one will stand by the team, neither by the coach. I don't think that logical excuses like ‘building a new team' will work with the fans if Egypt's performance wasn't up to par. In that case, the foreign coach debate will arise and in the worst-case scenario, some people could be slamming Bradley just because he is American! Unsorted political beliefs have become customary after the revolution and strikes have become very common for most of the unhappy Egyptian community. So if people begin to lose confidence in Bradley, accusations like ‘Bradley the American agent' could one day be the headline on a banner before the FA headquarters, but hopefully this day will not come! 5- The media Hassan Shehata made history with Egypt by winning three Nations Cup titles on the trot, yet he never broke free from the nuisance of the ever-critical Egyptian press. The current Zamalek boss eventually endured a no-love-lost relationship with the local press and was even involved in some heated TV conversations like the one he had with renowned presenter Amr Adeeb two years ago. In a similar fashion works one of the most famous foreign managers in Egypt's history; Ahli boss Manuel Jose; the man who does not even attend press conferences due to his frosty relationship with the media. It is fair to say that Shehata and Jose have had enough from the press in Egypt, struggling for long with silly questions, unjustified criticism or fabricated stories at times. So what approach will Bradley go for? Will he follow in the footsteps of the two most successful managers in Egypt in recent years, or is he capable of handling the stereotypical intimidations of Egyptian reporters? 6-Zaher's board Up until now, ‘Mr. Samir' is a very respectful person for Bradley, but the American coach has to know that Samir Zaher and his board could be history in a blink of an eye. Chairman Zaher has been fighting against a myriad of clubs who were calling for the dissolution of his board for several months now. The instability of the FA was exposed by successive resignations of prominent board members like Mahmoud Al-Shami, Mahmoud Taher and Ayman Youness in recent months. The uncertain future of the association, coupled by continuous accusations of unprofessionalism, corruption and mismanagement, could be major long-term concerns for the national team, and thus for Bradley.
