Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
We’ll spend time, not money, on trying to climb up
CHANGED DAYS AS ROVERS NOW REGARD FIERCE RIVALS BURNLEY AS BIG SPENDERS
Turf Moor: Tomorrow, 12.30pm EXCLUSIVE BY
JON DAHL TOMASSON smiled as he said it but his quip is true.
Tomasson joked when asked about how much more Burnley spent than rivals Blackburn during the summer.
“I haven’t counted the money but, if I counted our money, I think I’d finish a bit quicker!” grinned the Rovers boss.
Blackburn spent around £4million on transfers and Burnley splashed out that much on Scott Twine alone. Rovers, synonymous with big spending and the team that Jack Walker built in the 1990s, now live very much within their means.
Owners Venky’s have instead invested in youth and Tomasson, luring him to Ewood Park after a successful two-year stint at Malmo, where he won back-toback Swedish titles.
The 46-year-old is working his magic at Blackburn, who will go top of the Championship if they beat leaders Burnley in tomorrow’s East Lancashire derby at Turf Moor.
The signs are positive and Tomasson reached 10 league wins in 17 games, the fastest by any Blackburn boss since Sir Kenny Dalglish in Rovers’ 199495 title-winning season.
They also beat West Ham in the Carabao Cup in midweek, yet the Dane is quick to play down promotion talk, claiming the fans, who last savoured Premier League football in 2012, understand he needs time.
“We’re happy with what we’ve done so far but I don’t think you can compare us with a great team like Sir Kenny’s and all those legends,” he said.
“We have a lot of patience and you need to be patient when you work with young players.
“I love to develop in that way. We did that at Malmo where we won two championships.
“I think we started without one national team player, and after two years, there were 12 or 13 playing for national teams.
“I love creating something. We have our vision here and of course we are ambitious, and over time we want to be a sustainable Premier League club.
“But our fans are not stupid, they can see the situation.
“I think 12 players left last season and we got six in, and a lot of youngsters, so we need time.”
Tomasson understands how much the first East Lancs league derby since March 2016 means to fans and he still gets goosebumps when he remembers scoring for AC Milan in a famous 3-2 victory over Inter in 2004 when the Rossoneri fought back from 2-0 down at half-time.
He added: “I’ve seen it with Feyenoord against Ajax, Milan against Inter – extremely big derbies, and that passion is the same. It’s about the soul of football because the fans are the soul of football.”