There are those at Chelsea who suppose that when a man is tired of the King's Road he is tired of life. "How can Brian Laudrup leave London for a place like this?" asked one Chelsea supporter with incredulity here yesterday.
But the Danish capital has its pleasures: a multitude of museums, the famous Tivoli entertainment park and the picturesque Nyhavn, close to the home of Hans Christian Andersen. And, if Laudrup ever misses the face of Dennis Wise, he has only to gaze at the gargoyles that decorate the older houses in the narrow streets.
Most importantly for Laudrup, this is home, which is why he is expected to leave Stamford Bridge and return to Denmark to join FC Copenhagen, tonight's opponents.
Chelsea's manager, Gianluca Vialli, must therefore decide if Laudrup is in the right frame of mind to play against his prospective future employers in the return match of this second-round tie in the Parken Stadium.
"I'm here to win the match for Chelsea," Laudrup said on his arrival. "I have a contract with Chelsea, they pay my wages, I am 100 per cent professional and I'm ready to do my best."
In the first leg, when Chelsea earned a draw only through Marcel Desailly's late equaliser, the homesick Laudrup was perhaps their most dangerous weapon, and Vialli is unlikely to leave him out tonight, when his side must score to progress to the quarter-finals in March. If he does not play the Dane, Vialli himself may line up alongside Tore Andre Flo.
