Laudrup named new Swansea manager
Reuters - Friday 15 June 2012, 11:55
Swansea City appointed former
Denmark international and Barcelona great Michael Laudrup as
their manager on Friday in what they hoped would prove a perfect
fit for the 'Barcelona of Welsh football'.
The Premier League club said in a statement that Laudrup,
who won four titles in a row with Barcelona and was also
acclaimed as Denmark's best ever player, had signed a two-year
deal.
Swansea's style last season paid tribute to a Barca side
widely hailed as the best in the world and the Dane, who is
expected to start work towards the end of next week, will keep
up that tradition.
"Everyone knows the style of football Swansea play and it
suits my way of thinking," said Laudrup, who has been working in
Spain as a television pundit alongside former Swansea, Real
Madrid and Wales manager John Toshack.
"It's going to be a new experience for me and I'm really
looking forward to it," he told the club website.
It will be Laudrup's first foray into English football
management, after resigning from la Liga side Real Mallorca in
September, and he will be the third manager in four years at the
Liberty Stadium.
He will also be the first Dane to manage in the Premier
League.
Laudrup, who celebrated his 48th birthday on Friday,
replaces Brendan Rodgers who moved to Liverpool last month with
three backroom staff. Swansea said his assistants would be
confirmed at a later date.
Swansea finished 11th this year in their debut Premier
League season, winning plenty of admirers with a possession
style inspired by Barcelona's rapid passing 'tiki-taka'
philosophy.
FULLY COMMITTED
The Dane will bring the experience he acquired as a Barca
and Real Madrid player who won five successive Spanish titles
between 1991 and 1995 with a reputation as an elegant passer of
the ball.
"We see Michael as someone who is fully committed and
educated in all aspects of the way we want to take the club
forward," said chairman Huw Jenkins.
"Our overall aim is to build on our first season in the
Premier League, but we also fully understand the need to adapt
our approach as we go along to remain competitive season after
season," he added.
"Part of that process is to look at new ideas and increase
our knowledge on all aspects of the game to keep advancing."
The attacking midfielder also won league championships in
Italy and Netherlands with Juventus and Ajax.
He won 104 caps for Denmark and has managed in Denmark,
Spain and Russia.
Former Swansea player-manager and compatriot Jan Molby said
earlier in the week, when the appointment was looking a done
deal, that Laudrup would be an ideal appointment.
"I think he'll do well... I know Michael was very impressed
with the way things are done [in the Premier League], the way in
which he is in control of footballing matters, selling of
players, buying of players," Molby told the BBC.
"I know that's some of the problems he's had at previous
clubs and of course he has a very specific way he wants to
play," added the former Liverpool midfielder.
"He was strongly influenced by Johan Cruyff when he was at
Barcelona in the late 1980s, early 90s.
"That's how he wants to play his football that's how Swansea
played last year under Brendan Rodgers, so if it happens I think
it's a marriage made in heaven."