Tomasson comments show Blackburn Rovers were right to appoint John Eustace: View | OneFootball

Jon Dahl Tomasson's recent comments explain why Blackburn Rovers turned to John Eustace at Ewood Park.

The Danish boss was appointed Rovers head coach back in the summer of 2022, but three-and-a-half weeks ago he left his post.

On Friday, the Sweden national team's new manager explained the reason as to why he left.

Tomasson told Swedish outlet Fotboll Skankalen: “I left Blackburn because it was a difficult situation.

"Of course, they cut the budget. I signed up for a project which changed. That was the reason.”

This wasn't an ideal situation for him, and days later the club appointed Eustace.

The Eustace appointment makes sense because he showed at Birmingham City that he could work well on a limited budget.

Blackburn's deadline day failure was the final straw for Tomasson

Rovers failed to sign Duncan McGuire on transfer deadline day.

The Orlando City striker and United States international nearly signed for Blackburn on loan, but an embarrassing admin error on behalf of the club prevented the switch from happening – as revealed by The Athletic.

It left Tomasson frustrated, but had the board backed him rather than cut the budget, it might have saved him the stress.

This was the final straw for Tomasson, as just over a week later, he walked away.

Eustace did a good job at Birmingham City

Birmingham, his predecessor Lee Bowyer was caught up in the midst of turmoil at the club.

Fans regularly protested at Chairman Zhao Wenqing and Birmingham Sports Holdings Ltd — a faceless entity based in Hong Kong.

Eustace worked under an ownership model that restricted Birmingham's on-field dealings, but did well to keep the Blues well afloat in the Championship last season with limited resources.

However, last summer, when Shelby Companies Ltd – a company owned by Knighthead Capital Management – bought a stake in the club along with NFL icon Tom Brady – things were beginning to look up.

Situated in the play-off places in October under Eustace, the ownership decided to replace him with Wayne Rooney, who was sacked back in January.

Blackburn's owners have been very vociferous in protest at the Venky's since the day the Indian company bought the Lancashire club back in November 2010.

Relegation from the Premier League followed in 2012, and they haven't returned to the top flight since.

That's the aim, and they will be hoping that Eustace can work similarly to how he did at Birmingham against a difficult backdrop prior to the summer's takeover.

It was clear that Tomasson didn't want to work after the budget was cut, so Eustace is now taking on the challenge to keep them in the Championship.

Tomasson felt let down by Blackburn ownership

After his first Championship game as Blackburn manager in July 2022 – a 1-0 win at home to QPR, Tomasson faced the media.

One of his first questions aside of the game was to be asked about the transfer situation at Rovers.

He told BBC Radio Lancashire: "From day one, we are dragging all in the same direction. It's not always like that, but we have good people round the club.

"We are dragging in the same direction, and you need that if you want to be successful and the boys have bought into the things and are working hard. The players we have at the moment have done a good job for the club today."

This came after Tomasson's predecessor, Tony Mowbray (ironically Birmingham's current manager) left, and shortly after his departure to Sunderland he revealed that he needed more reinvestment from the owners at Ewood Park, which didn't happen.

In the end, not everybody was dragging in the same direction as Tomasson and the owners were on a different page – something he eluded to from the very start, explaining that it wasn't always the case.

He was proven right.

Eustace is more accustomed to the situation that he faces at Blackburn as he kept Birmingham up a year previously in not too dissimilar circumstances.