This is big.

Take a deep breath, American soccer fans.

A Yank has taken charge of an English Premier League team … a team in the world’s most popular sports league.

Bob Bradley is the new coach of Swansea City, the Wales-based club that already is at risk of relegation, seven matches into the season.

He not only becomes the first American to coach a Premier League team, he is the first to coach a team in any of Europe’s “big five” leagues — those of Spain, Germany, Italy, France and England.

Bradley, who last spring came within one goal of taking French club Le Havre up to Ligue 1,  is by far the best-prepared American to take on this sort of assignment. But much of the football world expects him to fail.

A British pundit at ESPN called Swansea’s hiring of Bradley a “risky move” that “could go horribly wrong”. And that will be the thinking through most of Europe and especially around the Premier League.

“This Bradley guy is out of his depth.” And we have to at least consider the possibility, considering he now is going head to head with the likes of Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho, Arsene Wenger, Jurgen Klopp and Mauricio Pocchetino.

But Bradley has an eclectic background and supreme self-confidence and has demonstrated an ability to find success in difficult situations — with the Egyptian national team, a Norwegian club, a French club and, of course, the U.S. national team, which he took to the final 16 of the 2010 World Cup.

He is a tactically astute problem solver who has impressed at every stop.

In the blog post linked, above, I recall having a conversation early in Bradley’s tenure as U.S. coach, and I asked him why he could move career U.S. scoring leader Landon Donovan from an advanced role, as a striker, and over to the wing.

“Wouldn’t that mean Landon operates on only half the field instead of being all over it,” I asked, after a practice session.

As I wrote then: “Bradley calmly outlined his reasons, which included his contention that Donovan would see the ball nearly as often without having to exhaust himself in target-man duties. He talked me around on it, and I later conceded he had been right — Donovan was better on the wing, and so was the U.S. team.”

Remember, under Bradley the U.S. beat Egypt and world No. 1 Spain en route to a narrow, 3-2 loss to Brazil in the 2009 Confederations Cup championship match, in South Africa.

Many who still doubt the tactical savvy of American coaches (and players) will dismiss his hiring at Swansea as a sort of Red-White-and-Blue-Club move by the club’s American owners.

They didn’t exactly show patience as the Italian manager Francesco Guidolin had only one victory in seven matches.

An American also owns the Ligue 2 Le Havre side, in France, and he brought in Bradley ahead of men the average European fan would consider more experienced.

Bradley is 58, old enough to have experienced several challenging situations and keen for a chance on the biggest stage, young enough to have the energy to make it happen.

Swansea City is not a club weighed down by too many stars. Its leading scorer, so far, is a midfielder, Leroy Fer. The club has only six goals in seven games, but the club did show some gumption in carrying a one-goal lead into the second half at home versus Liverpool, on Saturday, before losing 2-1.

Ryan Giggs, who played for the Wales national team (and Manchester United), was the other candidate for the Swansea job, and fans in Wales may not show much patience with this American coach of whom they had never heard.

Bradley’s his clubs have been punching above their weight for years now.

He has most of two weeks, during the international break, to institute the changes in formation, tactics and players he has in mind for Swansea City. That will have to do.

Bradley’s first Premier League match? October 15, at Arsenal, which is coached by Wenger, a veteran of 20 Premier League seasons. (Twenty years ago, Bradley was an assistant to Bruce Arena at DC United.)

After that? Home to Watford, away to Stoke (two winnable matches), home to Manchester United, away to Everton.

Given his lack of recognition in Britain, it seems fair to say Bradley’s Swansea City will need something like five points out of those five games to keep the critics at bay.

He didn’t coach in Spain, he didn’t assist a Mourinho or a Guardiola, but I have a sneaking suspicion Swansea will get those five points. Bradley is a man who makes things happen.

American soccer no doubt wishes him a fervent “Godspeed” as he embarks on the greatest challenge taken on by a born-in-the-USA coach.