It was February 1998. Reigning champions Manchester United topped the Premier League table. Ruud Gullit’s Chelsea, as well as Blackburn Rovers and Liverpool, were four points back.

At Stamford Bridge, though, all was not well behind the scenes. The Blues might have been lying in second, and holding genuine aspirations of a title challenge, but Gullit and the club were in dispute over the terms of a new contract. The situation soon reached an impasse, and Gullit was sacked. It was headline news.

The Dutchman left a parting gift. Before time was called on his historic Blues career, Gullit had set the wheels in motion for the high-profile acquisition of Rangers’ Brian Laudrup.

In his four years in Scotland, the exciting Danish attacker was widely regarded as the best player north of the border. His contract at Ibrox was running down and he would become a free agent in the summer of ’98. Gullit and Laudrup had very briefly overlapped at AC Milan in 1993/94, and our player-manager saw an opportunity to get a world-class attacker, a hero of Denmark’s unlikely Euro ’92 triumph, for free.

They discussed a move to Chelsea on the phone, but when Laudrup came to London to talk to the club in person, the meeting took place in Gianluca Vialli’s flat in Kensington, without Gullit. With managing director Colin Hutchinson also present, Laudrup was told Vialli was about to take the reins.

A rival offer comes too late

Also discussed – and criticised – was Gullit’s rotation policy. Laudrup was fiercely opposed to such a strategy, which had hampered his time in Milan. Vialli too spoke of his disenchantment with it, having suffered under Gullit. Laudrup accepted Vialli’s word and, despite offers from several other top European clubs, agreed to join Chelsea ahead of the 1998/99 campaign. Laudrup would later reveal Alex Ferguson called him the very next day offering him a deal at Manchester United. He was too late.

On 20 February, eight days after Gullit’s sacking, it was confirmed Laudrup would sign for Chelsea on a free transfer upon the expiry of his Rangers contract. The 29-year-old was grateful to have time to sort schooling for his children and to find a house before moving to London, while with the Blues’ title challenge faltering, Vialli hoped Laudrup’s arrival could prove decisive in his first full season in charge.

Hutchinson flew to Copenhagen on 6 June to formalise Laudrup’s contract ahead of France ’98. Media reports would later suggest Laudrup changed his mind about joining Chelsea in the intervening week, and rang Hutchinson asking to be released from his contract before the World Cup began.

Understandably, Hutchinson strongly rejected that possibility. He stated Chelsea would not hesitate to get FIFA, UEFA or the courts involved if Laudrup did not honour his contract. The Dane relented, and so, after a fantastic showing in France, in which he scored two goals and registered three assists to help his country reach the quarter-finals, he became a Chelsea player. He retired from international football after the tournament, stating he wanted his Chelsea contract to be his last. Whether he truly believed that remains to be seen.

A winning debut

Laudrup was not fit to feature in either of our first two games of 1998/99, so Chelsea fans got their first sighting of him as a late substitute in the UEFA Super Cup victory over Real Madrid, the club Laudrup’s elder brother Michael had sensationally joined from Barcelona a few years prior.

Laudrup started our next fixture, a goalless draw with Arsenal. He made little impact on the game from a much wider position on the pitch than his preferred no.10 spot, and returned to the bench three days later when we beat Nottingham Forest at the Bridge. In an interview at the time, Laudrup acknowledged it had been a difficult start to life at Stamford Bridge.

‘I have been to a meeting with Vialli and the other forwards at the club,’ he revealed.

‘Vialli said that he regards us all as stars and that we actually each of us should play every single time, but he would not give any guarantees to any of us. His message was that none of us can feel secure of a spot in the starting line-up and of course that's a new situation for me that I have to get used to.

‘I didn't like the same system at Milan, and the big danger is that some players might never find the right rhythm. I need all the playing time that I can possibly get right now because it was a big problem in my league debut that my team-mates didn't know me and I didn't know them. I was criticised for my debut but please notice I played in a strange role in right midfield which is not my favourite space at all.’

Laudrup added: ‘I think that Vialli has already seen that the best space for me is as the free runner behind the forwards like I played for Rangers and Denmark. Physically I am fit but I lack a bit in timing and only playing big matches will help me now.’

Finding his stride

Laudrup came off the bench to provide a fine assist for Tore Andre Flo in the thrilling 4-3 comeback win at Ewood Park, and he then set up another goal as we beat Middlesbrough 2-0.

‘Laudrup was brilliant,’ wrote the Independent. ‘His clever link-up play and accurate crossing stretched Boro to the limits.’

That was the first of four consecutive Premier League starts, but Laudrup was clearly not happy being left out of the Cup Winners’ Cup trip to Helsingborgs. An interview he conducted in mid-October, less than two months after his debut, pointed to his frustration at Vialli’s rotation system. But accommodating Gianfranco Zola, Flo, Pierluigi Casiraghi, Vialli himself and Laudrup was no easy task for the Italian player-manager.

‘When I first discussed terms with Chelsea in February, nobody told me about this system - if I'd known about it, I would have brought it up,’ Laudrup said.

‘I would have thought twice about signing for Chelsea if I had known. I feel from my own point of view that I don't like it. Whenever I play and feel as though I have done well, I don't know if I will play the next game.

‘I can be man of the match in one game and then not even on the bench the next. It is a bad system - what I need to maintain a good level of fitness is to play all the time. I might play well for 90 minutes and then not play another game for the next couple of weeks - I don't like the system of rotation.

‘I missed the pre-season matches and the only way I could come back to full fitness was in European matches and the Premier League.’

Things turn sour

Laudrup was not happy, and rumours abounded linking him with a move to Copenhagen, in his homeland. In a twist of fate, we had just been drawn to play the ambitious, recently formed club in the last 16 of the Cup Winners’ Cup.

Hutchinson did not want to give up one of his prize assets so soon. That upset Laudrup further.

‘Now they were in a situation where they could actually make some money off me, and they hadn’t paid a penny for me,’ he would later say. ‘I thought it was despicable that they wanted to hold on to me.’

Negotiations continued. Laudrup played the full 90 minutes of the first leg against Copenhagen at Stamford Bridge, when a late Marcel Desailly strike cancelled out Bjarne Goldbaek’s opener. He received criticism from some sections of the home support for what they perceived to be another lacklustre performance.

By the time the return game came around a fortnight later, it was apparent Laudrup was on his way out. Copenhagen would pay three instalments of £400,000 for his services, with a further £4 million being due to Chelsea should Laudrup be sold to another team over the course of his two-and-a-half-year contract.

Despite the unusual situation, Vialli showed faith in Laudrup by selecting him from the start in Copenhagen. It would prove to be his final game in a Chelsea shirt, and he signed off in style.

A fantastic finale

With just over half-an-hour played, Casiraghi steered Graeme Le Saux’s onto the crossbar, with the loose ball falling Laudrup’s way. He headed powerfully into the net.

'The Hans Christian Andersen fairytale is complete!' roared Jonathan Pearce on the Channel 5 coverage.

Chelsea had the away goal we needed, and with the Danes unable to muster a response, Vialli’s men advanced to the quarter-finals as we sought to defend the title we had won in Stockholm a few months earlier.

Before Laudrup’s decisive intervention, he had been warmly received by the home support, excited that one of the greatest Danish players of all time would soon be donning their colours. Sections of the away end in Copenhagen were less forgiving. Alongside boos, it needed chairman Ken Bates to go into the visitors’ section behind the goal and demand the removal of an anti-Laudrup banner.

Above all, though, Laudrup’s professionalism shone through, with his vital goal only adding to what was a bizarre situation.

‘I was under a lot of pressure before the game, but I think I showed a lot of commitment,’ reflected Laudrup. ‘I just went out there to do my best for Chelsea.’

‘I've always had faith in Brian,’ added Vialli.

‘I knew before the game he was having a quite difficult time with all that was going on, but he's been outstanding in training and previous matches and he responded very well. He's been professional and the goal was the right reward for him.’

The next day, Laudrup received a further boost. Scarcely 12 hours after the final whistle had blown in Parken, Hutchinson pushed through the attacker’s transfer to Copenhagen in time for him to be registered for their four games before the Danish midwinter break. It certainly cheered Copenhagen president Flemming Ostergaard up after his club’s European exit.

‘Brian is a very special guy,’ he said. ‘He's very honest. He could easily just have played at 90 per cent. I must also praise Colin Hutchinson and Ken Bates at Chelsea.

‘If he had been playing for an Italian club, the management wouldn't have looked at it in the very human way Chelsea did.’

Goldbaek comes in

On 6 November 1998, two days after he scored his only Chelsea goal in the 11 games he played, and barely two months after his Blues debut, Laudrup signed a two-and-a-half year contract with Copenhagen. It brought to an end one of the shortest Chelsea careers in recent years.

As part of the deal, Goldbaek moved the other way having caught the eye playing on the right of Copenhagen’s midfield, where Laudrup had resented being deployed. Goldbaek would prove a useful Chelsea squad member for a little over a year, notably scoring an iconic equaliser at White Hart Lane that prolonged our long unbeaten run against Tottenham.

The Laudrup saga was not over. Just as in London, he failed to settle at his new club. In the spring of ’99, Laudrup made use of a clause inserted in his contract allowing him to revoke it. In doing so, he effectively became a Chelsea player again. Hutchinson sold him to Ajax that summer, where he enjoyed one successful season before retiring due to injury aged just 31.

It is for the time he spent representing Denmark, Bayern Munich and Rangers that Brian Laudrup is arguably best remembered now, one half of one of the most skilful and talented pair of brothers to have played the game.

His legacy at Chelsea is not simply limited to an enduring transfer saga and a memorable only goal; when asked in 2013 to pick a best XI of players he had played with or against, Le Saux selected Laudrup in his team. The other former Blues to make it? Zola, Frank Lampard, and John Terry. That speaks to the talent of the man, a talent Chelsea supporters sadly never saw the best of.

- You can read an exclusive interview with Bjarne Goldbaek in the Copenhagen matchday programme, available at the stadium on Thursday or online now.

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