Michael Laudrup - Managing Career

Managing Career

After his playing career ended with Ajax, Laudrup became a coach at age 36 when he started serving as an assistant coach for the Danish national team coach Morten Olsen in 2000. The national team would play a 4–2–3–1 formation, depending on two fast wingers and with the aim to dominate games with a short-passing possession game. Together they led Denmark to the knock-out stage of 2002 World Cup, after which Laudrup took the job as manager for Brøndby in the Danish Superliga. As his assistant coach, Laudrup paired up with former Danish championship winning manager John Jensen, who had played alongside him in the Danish national team.

At the start of his reign, Laudrup proclaimed a tactical scheme close to that which Olsen and he had coached at the national team. Laudrup renovated the Brøndby team by letting a large contingent of older and experienced players go, in favour of several new offensive players, and he gave the chance to young talents from the club's youth scheme. To ensure the defensive strength of the team, he hired the proven national team player Morten Wieghorst. In his first year as head coach, he managed the team to a Danish Cup win against FC Midtjylland in the final. After finishing runners up twice, he finally led the team to The Double in 2005.

After finishing runners-up in the 2005–06 season, Laudrup left Brøndby along with assistant coach John "Faxe" Jensen. He could not come to an agreement with Brøndby about renewing his contract, and therefore decided to leave the club. He was associated with several new jobs, including head coach of former club Real Madrid and rumours that he would replace Lars Lagerbäck as head coach for the Swedish national team. In 2007, Brøndby decided to name a new lounge at the stadium "The Michael Laudrup Lounge", with Laudrup's approval.

On 21 June 2007, he was linked to a move to Madrid's La Liga team Getafe by sports newspaper Marca. This was confirmed on 9 July 2007. During his stay in Getafe the club reached the final in Copa del Rey, but lost to Valencia, and the quarter finals in the UEFA Cup (lost in extra time to Bayern Munich). During his tenure, as successor to former Real Madrid manager Bernd Schuster, he brought a new brand of exciting and free-flowing attacking football to the club which brought back memoires of Laudrup as a player. His team, which was not one of the established forces in Spanish football, enjoyed comparative success. However, he performed only one season as manager, tendering his resignation in May 2008.

After he announced his departure from Getafe he was linked with jobs at Valencia, Benfica, Chelsea, Blackburn Rovers, Panathinaikos, CSKA Moscow and West Ham United. He almost got the job at Panathinaikos, but according to Danish media he wanted an option to allow him to leave, if he got an offer from a Spanish club. This could not be accepted by the Greeks, who chose Henk ten Cate instead. On 12 September 2008, it was officially announced that Laudrup signed a 18-month contract with Spartak Moscow. However, he spent only 7 months in the post, being sacked on 15 April 2009 after Spartak's 0–3 loss to Dinamo Moscow in the Russian Cup.

On 22 October 2009, Spanish media announced that Laudrup would be appointed as new manager of Spanish side Atlético Madrid, replacing the short and unsuccessful run of Abel Resino, following Atletico's 4–0 Champions League defeat at the hands of Chelsea, but Laudrup and the club weren't able to agree on terms. The day after, on 23 October, Resino was sacked and Quique Sanchez Flores was appointed as coach as second choice instead of Laudrup.

In July 2010, Laudrup was appointed manager of RCD Mallorca on a contract that was to run until the end of June 2012. In his first season in Mallorca, Laudrup managed to keep a struggling Mallorca team from relegation, which was suffering from losing many first team players and who was ejected from the Europa League due to a bad financial situation. At the beginning of the 2011–2012 season, on 27 September 2011, Laudrup resigned from his job, following the firing of his assistant, Erik Larsen. Laudrup cited that great frustration with Lorenzo Serra Ferrer, the club's Director of Football, leading to a bad work climate as the main reason for his resignation.

On 15 June 2012, he was appointed manager of Swansea City on a two-year contract. His first competitive match as Swansea manager came as an impressive 5-0 away win at Loftus Road versus Queens Park Rangers. At Swansea City, Alan Tate says that Laudrup was considered to be the best player in training despite being age of 48.