Michael Laudrup says Swansea's philosophy attracted him to Wales

New Swansea manager Michael Laudrup says the footballing philosophy at the Liberty Stadium is what attracted him to the Premier League club.

The 48-year-old Dane won five Spanish league titles as a player with Barcelona and Real Madrid in the 1990s.

"I did some research about this team and club," he told BBC Sport. "I wanted it to fit with the way I see football.

"With the philosophy this club has, and the way I see football, I think it's a very good match."

Laudrup's style is in keeping with the playing philosophy which Swans chairman Huw Jenkins is keen to retain following the departure of previous manager Brendan Rodgers to Liverpool in May.

Swansea enjoyed a successful debut season in the top flight in 2011-12 and finished 11th in the Premier League, playing an attractive and fluid style of football.

Laudrup, who joined Swansea in June, has previous managerial experience with Brondby, Getafe, Spartak Moscow and Real Mallorca, and is Swansea's third manager in the past four years.

For the man who was voted Denmark's greatest-ever player in a 2006 poll, the philosophy inherent to a football club is key.

"The life of a manager depends a lot on the club where he is, of the way [the directors] see everything, of the patience they have and the results," Laudrup told the BBC's World Football programme.

"You can never be sure how things will work out with results but at least we have the same philosophy.

"That is why I came here and that is why the club contacted me in the first place."

For a man who enjoyed such a successful playing career, Laudrup is very clear what role he should employ as a manager - that of a teacher. He knows what style and technique he wants his players to adopt, and is clear about how he plans to achieve that.

"The advantage you have as an ex-player at the highest level is that you have been there on the pitch. But now I have to teach people," he said.

"To be a teacher is not the same as being a good student. You have to define very carefully what you can ask your players to do.

"You can't ask players to do things that Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are doing, but you can ask the easy things. Sometimes the easiest things in football - a simple pass five or eight yards - can be the most effective. That, everybody can learn and everybody can improve."

Laudrup's managerial career has seen him take charge of sides in Denmark, Spain and now Britain that are smaller in stature than the clubs of his playing days - the two giants of Spanish football Barca and Real, Italian powers Juventus and four-time European champions Ajax from the Netherlands.

He has a two-year contract at Swansea, but Laudrup denies he plans to use his time in south Wales as a stepping stone to move to bigger, more high-profile positions.

"No, I've never seen it like that," he insisted. "I don't have that dream of building to the top. I don't have a road map.

"I'm 48 now and I don't know what will happen in the future - live in the present and see what happens.

"I can't control the future. I can control the present and what I'm doing right now, but I can't control what I will be doing in two or five years."

But how does the man once described by Germany legend Franz Beckenbauer as the best footballer of the 1990s want his managerial career to be remembered?

"I can see already what I have done at some clubs. Some players have gone to bigger clubs or become better players. That gives me something very special.

"I know managing teams like Getafe, Mallorca or Swansea that I will not win the league or maybe not even the cup. It's other things that have to give you that satisfaction, and I think that's great."