Top 10 Young Football Managers (Part Two)

2. Michael Laudrup

Age: 49

Nationality: Danish

Current club: Swansea City

Previous clubs: Brondby; Getafe; Spartak Moscow; Mallorca

Major Honours/Accolades: Football League Cup (2013); Dutch Superliga (2004-05); Danish Cup (2003 & 2005); Danish Supercup (2002); Danish Manager of the Year (2003 & 2005)

Expert Views:

Brendan Rodgers propelled Swansea into the Premier League and then secured an impressive 11th place finish on their return to the big time – how do you follow that? Simple. Just sign the bargain of the season, play more exciting attacking football, finish 8th and lift the first major trophy in the club’s history to cap off the club’s centenary year.

These were the feats of the Great Dane Michael Laudrup. Laudrup has not made wholesale changes to Swansea’s style of play just subtle tweaks to sharpen the Swans attack. For example, Laudrup has the Swans playing with a very narrow 4-2-3-1 with the attacking three, usually Nathan Dyer, Wayne Routledge and Pablo Hernandez, behind the striker perpetually rotating positions.

Laudrup has retained Swansea’s much lauded passing game yet unlike Rodgers, Laudrup places more emphasis on the ball getting up the pitch quickly.

You cannot fault Laudrup’s efforts in the transfer market either, signing a whole host of quality players on a relatively small budget. Of course, his biggest coup was the jaw-droppingly cheap signature of Michu – a measly £2m for a player who filled two roles at times and scored 22 times in all competitions. His exploitation of the Spanish market has been brilliant – for me, Chico Flores is still one of the most underrated players in the league and it’ll be interesting to see how Laudrup’s latest Spanish recruits, Canas, Pozuelo and Amat, fare in the Premier League.

He may not have the same personable feel with the fans (or certain players apparently) that Rodgers and Martinez possessed, but you cannot argue with the results he is getting. Laudrup has a reputation of not staying at clubs for too long and leaving clubs suddenly; Swansea have already endured a mass amount of speculation surrounding Laudrup, but it appears the Dane is here to stay for the 2013/14. As for the 2014/15 season – personally, I can see him being elsewhere by then.