Jon Dahl Tomasson was about to agree to a new job before Rovers came calling at the 11th hour.

Rovers’ new head coach was contacted by incoming director of football Gregg Broughton who sold the club’s vision to Tomasson who has since signed a three-year deal.

The 45-year-old was officially unveiled yesterday, having met the squad for the first time in the morning, and is eager to get to work, with a pre-season trip to Portugal scheduled for next week.

It could have all been so different however, Tomasson having been in advanced talks with a European club about taking charge, six months after opting to leave Swedish club Malmo after delivering back-to-back titles.

“I had a lot of opportunities to be honest and I was actually almost signing with a club playing in Europe this season,” he said.

“But with Gregg, and the vision of the club, I changed my mind and of course it’s because it is a great project. It’s about being ambitious and developing at the same time, but also doing it at the right speed.

“We all have that dream to go to the Premier League and be a sustainable Premier League club; of course we have that. But we will try to create success for today, for tomorrow, but also create success that is sustainable and it’s about doing things better than our rivals.

“At the end of the day, we are not going to buy players for a real lot of money, we know that. We have a great academy, we are going to develop players and do it that way - we need to entertain the fans because at the end of the day, football is for the fans.”

Broughton was appointed as Rovers’ director of football last week, but held talks with Tomasson prior to that, as the search for a head coach was accelerated.

He believes bringing in Tomasson is a coup for the club, and while arriving late into the managerial search, Broughton hopes he was able to find a candidate who fits with what Rovers are looking to do.

He added: “I was really excited to be given the opportunity to come in late in the process, but in the process, of recruiting the head coach.

“Hopefully I was able to ask the right questions of the owners and Steve to make sure we made the right appointment aligned to what we’re trying to achieve.

“We are grateful that we have got Jon over the line and get him here to Blackburn.

“When I first spoke with Jon he was deep into the process with a couple of clubs who were playing in the Champions League, albeit from smaller leagues than the British system, but he was deep into that process.

“I had to try and convince him to come and meet with us at Blackburn Rovers and see if this was the right opportunity for him.

“We discussed the vision, I was fully aware of how he played, what he tried to do, what he’d achieved with Denmark and Malmo, and when we were able to get him in, and he was able to present, how he saw the future, shape the team, what his beliefs were in terms of what he wanted to do in terms of a player trading and youth integration point of view, we felt for what the club needed right now, we felt Jon was the outstanding candidate.”

Meanwhile, asked if he had received contact from the owners prior to, or following, his appointment: "I got a message from one of the owners this morning and I have spoken with Suhail, as well as Steve and Gregg."

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