Swansea's rise from the Football League basement to the Capital One Cup trophy and - next season - the Europa League, can be traced back to September 2002, when they actually hit rock bottom for the first time in their history before Brian Flynn managed to haul them away from the drop to the Conference on the last day of the season.
Kenny Jackett continued the forward momentum, taking Swansea into League One in 2005, before Roberto Martinez accelerated it, sweeping the South Wales outfit into the Championship in 2008 and making a strong push for the Premier League.
In doing so, Martinez installed the rhythmic passing game that has been in use at Wigan since the Spaniard jumped into the top flight with the Latics in 2009.
Martinez's replacement Paulo Sousa lasted only a year but maintained the same brand of football, which Brendan Rodgers then embraced to secure Swansea's top-flight return in 2011.
And now, even though Rodgers has moved on to Liverpool, Swansea still have an advocate of the passing game at the helm in Laudrup, who secured the first silverware in Swansea's history with their 5-0 win over Bradford at Wembley.
"There has been a philosophy at Swansea for the last six or seven years," said Laudrup.
"That makes it easier because every time you get someone in they are looking for the same kind of player.
"You don't have to change four or five from the starting XI as you have seen at other clubs when they change completely from one type of manager to another.
"For a team perspective that is very important and financially it is a good thing to do. It was one of the key reasons I was attracted to Swansea in the first place."
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