Laudrup: Laud and proud

Football legend Michael Laudrup has begun life in charge of Swansea in positive fashion - guiding the Welsh club to fifth place after four games in charge.

With Brendan Rodgers taking the Liverpool job and seen as a tough act to follow, former Denmark international Laudrup has breezed seamlessly into the role and taken seven points from his first four games at the helm.

Considered one of the greatest players to have played the game, Laudrup enjoyed a stellar playing career that included stints with Juventus, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Ajax.

But despite the who's-who of European giants on his CV, Laudrup is keen to learn about Swansea's history and feels privileged to be part of the set up at Swansea City Stadium.

He told Revista: "The past is something that is very important to every club - the story and where the club has come from. You have to try to understand that when you come.

"This is a new country for me, it's a new culture - a new football culture as well. Whenever I get to a new country, I always try to understand what has happened before.

"I was really looking forward to coming here. There are packed stadiums away and at home and that's something that I've missed in Spain. I was managing Getafe and Mallorca and the stadiums were only half full.

"The first time I walked in was very special - a full stadium and they received me fantastically. We also won 3-0 so what more can I ask for?

"Overall, they picked me because they know my philosophy is more or less the same as the one that the club has had for the last few seasons with Roberto Martinez and Brendan Rodgers.

"Every manager has small things and I changed some of the things because the second season at the highest level is always the most difficult. The first season is difficult but the second, even more so because we're not a surprise any more.

"We are not newcomers anymore so we have to put something on top and I think we are working on that. We know that there will be bad days, bad weeks and maybe even a bad month but nobody can take away what we already achieved."

Capture

Swansea fans have been particularly taken by Michu - one of Laudrup's first signings over the summer.

The 26-year-old was a hit at Rayo Vallecano last term and notched 15 goals in La Liga, yet cost the Swans just £2m in what may prove to be one the shrewdest pieces of Premier League business this year.

Michu was quickly to work on the goalscoring front - notching three goals in his opening two games from the club to capture the fans' imagination and ensure a solid start for Laudrup's reign.

Laudrup said of Michu: "Nobody could know that he was going to score three goals in the first two games. Things are not that well in Spain because of the economy so we got a lot of quality for reasonable money.

"What would a British player cost if they had scored 15 goals for a small club in the Premier League? Probably four or five times that amount. That's the difference between foreign players and domestic players - domestic players are always much more expensive.

"In the normal football world in Spain, a player like Michu - after what he did last season - would go to Atletico Madrid, Sevilla or Malaga for a certain amount of money but it shows how things are unfortunate there.

"I'm happy that he's here but also sad on behalf of Spanish football because there's so many problems there. It's hard times."