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THE greatest players, so the football saying goes, don’t make for great managers.

Bobby Moore and Bobby Charlton are often cited as two examples of that. More recently, I guess, you can throw Diego Maradona and Ruud Gullit into the mix.

The theory is that because they found the game so easy, they struggle when players under their command aren’t so efficient on the ball.

Of course, there are exceptions to the rule. Johann Cruyff and Franz Beckenbauer are two. Kenny Dalglish, in his Liverpool and Blackburn pomp, was another.

If he carries on the way he is going, throw Michael Laudrup into that mix, too.

The job the great Dane has done in his first few months with Swansea City is nothing short of sensational. The result achieved at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night is the best in Welsh football since the night Craig Bellamy struck the winner for Mark Hughes’ Dragons against Italy 11 years ago.

Yes the Swans rode their luck a little. But they went to the King’s Road home of the European champions, nullified their major threats with a brilliant defensive display and, thanks to the imperious Michu and the under-rated Danny Graham, produced the finest smash and grab performance I can remember for some time.

Gallery: Laudrup the player and manager

The players on the pitch, led in every sense by magnificent Wales captain Ashley Williams, were the ones who dealt with the threat of Juan Mata, Eden Hazard, Oscar, Fernando Torres and co.

But it was Laudrup who devised the master game-plan which denied Chelsea space and limited their genuine scoring opportunities. He gave his players organisation and belief. In return, they covered every blade of the Stamford Bridge grass for him.

That’s Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and Newcastle comfortably defeated away from home by Laudrup’s side this season. It is becoming too regular an occurrence to be regarded as a coincidence.

The more I see of Laudrup, the more and more impressed I am with him. There is just something about his demeanour, the dignified manner in which he conducts himself and the way he talks, which commands respect.

Something his name alone, I guess, should do anyhow.

Laudrup’s Premier League peers, going down the table in order, include the following; Sir Alex Ferguson, Andre Villas Boas, Rafa Benitez, David Moyes, Arsene Wenger, Steve Clarke, Brendan Rodgers, Tony Pulis. Sam Allardyce, Chris Hughton, Martin Jol, Alan Pardew, Nigel Adkins, Roberto Martinez, Brian McDermott and Harry Redknapp.

None of them, with the greatest of respect, possess anything like the playing pedigree of Laudrup on their own CVs.

Gallery: Highlights from Swansea's 2-0 win against Chelsea this week

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Manchester City’s Roberto Mancini was a very decent striker with Sampdoria and Italy, Sunderland boss Martin O’Neill lifted the European Cup as a player,. Paul Lambert, of Aston Villa, was a tidy midfielder who also won the Champions League.

Again, though, none of them could remotely hold a candle to master marksman Laudrup.

Diego Maradona and Michel Platini apart, Laudrup was at least on a par with any other footballer of his generation when he first broke into the Denmark team at the beginning of the 1980s and went on to shine so majestically for Juventus, Barcelona and Real Madrid.

He was a truly world-class player and is beginning to display signs that he has the capability of becoming a world-class manager, too.

Laudrup is very much in the mould of the modern Swansea manager, Young, hungry and capable of taking an already successful team to the next level.

Whatever it is the Swans board and their advisors do to find managers, it should become a template for others in the game to follow.

Under the chairmanship of Huw Jenkins, they have made a succession of brilliant appointments.

It began with Kenny Jackett, snowballed under Roberto Martinez, before Paulo Sousa took the club to their highest League finish since the John Toshack halcyon days.

Brendan Rodgers breezed in, delivered the Premier League dream, and when he departed many predicted doom and gloom for the Swans in 2012-13.

They had lost their manager, star midfielder Joe Allen and key centre-back Stephen Caulker also departed, while second season syndrome was supposed to catch out the Swans with other managers working out a method to stop their patient passing game.

To compound matters for the Swans, Laudrup lost Wales left-back Neil Taylor for the season through injury and magnificent shot-stopper Michel Vorm for a large chunk of it, too.

Then he had to put up with those early season reports of dressing room unrest and a rebellion against Laudrup’s methods and tactics.

Some rebellion. Quietly and diligently, Laudrup has set about the task of moving the Swans onto another level yet again.

One which sees them with one foot in their first major cup final at Wembley and Premier League status already pretty much guaranteed for next season too.

Laudrup has evolved the team by sticking to the passing principles in Swansea’s DNA, but making the side a little more direct and telling his centre-backs that when the ball needs to go into Row Z, then Row Z it goes into.

His work in the transfer market has been sensational. The £2m capture of Michu looks not so much the transfer bargain of the season, but more like the best bit of football business this century.

Pablo Hernandez, Ki Sung-Yeung, Jon De Guzman and Chico Flores have also given the side a new dimension,.

Young Ben Davies, in Taylor’s absence, has emerged as another real Welsh left-back gem.

Under Laudrup’s tutelage. Ashley Williams’ game has moved onto another level, while Wayne Routledge is more consistent than at any other stage of his career.

Right-back Rangel, said to be splendid going forward, suspect defensively, looked so good against Chelsea that Fabio Capello, no less, named him next to Lionel Messi in his current world XI.

For the record, Capello also chose a Premier League dream XI, with Chico Flores in the line-up.

Laudrup has already managed two clubs in Spain and also Russian giants Spartak Moscow. If I have a concern, it is that, as with Michu, he is doing such a fantastic job that bigger clubs are going to be casting envious eyes down the M4.

If the Swans do go on to lift the League Cup and continue to wow in the Premier League, interest in Laudrup from throughout Europe is inevitable.

Particularly when you combine his bright, articulate management style with a truly great playing CV.

Not too many have made the transition of top player to top manager. Laudrup is the modern day exception to the rule.