The Swansea manager Michael Laudrup recently signed a new long-term deal with the club after being linked with several major clubs over the last few months. He managed to get Swansea to the first major trophy in their history after winning the League Cup recently.

He took over from Brendan Rodgers in the summer, and he was expected to have a difficult time helping the club stay in the Premier league in their second season. However, he has been exceeding these expectations so far. The former Barcelona midfielder has credited the influence of the Barcelona legend Johan Cruyff as the reason behind his success of late.

Laudrup has recalled the five years he had at Barcelona when he played in the Johan Cruyff. He has said that he has learned a lot of information from the way Cruyff used to train his teams. He has also credited the influence of the current Republic of Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni and the former Denmark manager Sepp Piontek as well.

Laudrup has revealed that he does not place a lot of emphasis on the tactics. In fact, he has said that the tactical meetings do not last more than 3 minutes. The club are currently ninth in the Premier league table with 40 points on the board, and the latest Unibet betting shows that punters expect them to finish in the top 2.

a�?On the pitch everyone knows my five years with Cruyff in Barcelona were great years, there are a lot of things from the training I did with him that I am using now. There are also elements from Giovanni Trapattoni while I was in Italy and (former Denmark boss) Sepp Piontek. Those are the three I mention when people ask who had the most influence on my career a�� so we have a German, an Italian and a Dutchman who was from the school of a�?Total Footballa�� and was one of the top five players ever,a�? said Laudrup.