Bradley Dack reveals "issue" Jon Dahl-Tomassaon had that many Blackburn Rovers players didn't like | OneFootball

Former Blackburn midfielder Bradley Dack has spoken honestly about his exit from the club and his issues with their then-head coach Jon Dahl Tomasson.

Former Blackburn Rovers midfielder Bradley Dack has spoken honestly about the circumstances regarding his 2023 departure from the club and his clashes with former head coach Jon Dahl Tomasson.

Dack has spoken out about leaving Blackburn Rovers in 2023, and had some harsh words to say about former head coach Jon Dahl Tomasson over his man-management skills and personality clashes which tainted his last couple of years at Ewood Park.

Dack is now back with the club at which he started his career, Gillingham, but it is clear that behind-the-scenes tensions between him and Tomasson had a big role to play in him leaving after six years of service, while the player was also critical of the way in which the club handled his departure.

"Cultural clashes" and a "horrible ending": Dack lays into Blackburn in interview

In a wide-ranging interview with the Lancashire Telegraph, Dack has spoken at length about the effect that the appointment of Tomasson in 2022 had on his time with Blackburn, up to his 2023 departure. Dack said that, "The issue was a lot of the players clashed with culturally," and that "The way he went about things off the pitch, the way he spoke to people, that was something he could've done better."

Dack explained that his issues with Tomasson grew in the build-up to the start of the 2022-23 season: "I fell out with the manager a few times at the start of that season. There were a lot of things, I wasn't getting the minutes. In pre-season, it was about my running stats and certain things he wanted. I understood that to an extent."

But Dack was also critical of the club in a broader sense. He also claimed that requests to train at Blackburn while his return to Gillingham was finalised in 2024 following a year with Sunderland were rebuffed, with no indication as to why this should have been the case.

He stated that he held no grudges against Blackburn, but was also critical of the direction that the club has taken in recent years: "I'm not at the football club any more but I know a lot of people there. It seems like things are a bit disjointed in the way they're done."

Dack's departure from Blackburn was not well-handled by the club

Bradley Dack arrived at Ewood Park in 2017 for £750,000, having already made over 150 League appearances for Gillingham in League One and League Two. But the apppointment of Tomasson as head coach in February 2022 marked the beginning of the end of his time with the club.

Tomasson's appointment as the Blackburn head coach marked a change in direction for the club away from the more traditional "managerial" model, but injuries had plagued Dack's previous couple of seasons, and it was clear that his time with the club was coming to an end by the latter stages of the 2022-23 season.

Dack made 27 appearances for the club throughout his final season with Blackburn, but his departure from Ewood Park was not handled well by either Tomasson or the club, hinting at broader issues behind the scenes than the head coach's man-management skills alone.

Dack explained that he was brought on for the last thirty seconds of his last match for the club against Millwall and then was not given a formal send-off after six years with the club. Indeed, he revealed in the interview that he only found out that his contract was not being renewed as a result of a phone call from his agent.

Tomasson himself lasted in his position at Ewood Park until February 2024, when he left the club by mutual consent and took up the position as the head coach of the Sweden men's national team.

Blackburn supporters have long been critical of the owners of the club, but while Venky's have now been running Blackburn Rovers for 16 years, they confirmed earlier this year that they have no intention of selling the club.