Jon Dahl Tomasson may be attracting admiring glances from afar, but there is equally great interest in his Rovers career from across Europe.

Danish media have been present at Rovers press conferences, and matches, in his debut season in charge, while those in Sweden also keep across his progress following his two-year spell at Malmo.

It is 18 months since Tomasson, after delivering back-to-back Swedish top-flight titles, opted to leave the club having, in the eyes of journalist Jonas Hansson, ‘fixed’ everything he needed to at the club.

Malmo had gone two years without a league title, before Tomasson delivered numbers 20 and 21 in successive seasons in 2020 and 2021.

He then left to pursue other opportunities, which had looked to come at another Champions League-bound side, only for Rovers to come calling at the 11th hour to bring him to Ewood Park on a three-year deal.

“He arrived to Malmö FF and fixed everything that the club wanted to be fixed,” Hansson said, reflecting on Tomasson’s time in charge.

“They hadn’t won the league title for two years, which is a long time by Malmö FF standards.

“Their former coach, Uwe Rösler, didn’t care about young players and maybe lacked a few tactical nuances.

“It was a lot of ‘boom-boom’ football, while Malmö FF are more used to controlling the possession.

“They also had a generation of older players that were very symbolic for the team, but they wanted to remove them and start with another generation.”

Tomasson referenced the impact of the Covid pandemic, and the restrictions put in place, when announcing his decision to leave the club.

He had previous worked as assistant manager in the Denmark national team before opting to go into club management with Malmo.

Hansson raised a similarity between Tomasson’s management at Malmo and Rovers in his focus on youngsters and being across the development of all homegrown players.

“He was a professional. He always committed to Malmö FF, but never committed too much,” he added.

“He basically never spoke about his ambitions, but I think everyone understood that he might want to leave after a couple of years.

“The good thing is that he was always focused on doing his job the best way possible.

“For example, he watched more Malmö FF Under-19 trainings and games than any other Malmö FF coached I’ve written about.

“He felt that it is something you should do as a coach.”

Malmo struggled in their post-Tomasson era, finishing seventh in the table with only 13 wins from their 30 league games and 18 points behind first-time champions BK Hacken last season.

They have since turned to Henrik Rydstrom, previously of Kalmar, to lead them forward and he’s enjoyed a perfect start with maximum points from eight games.

Tomasson won 34 of his 60 league games in charge to deliver back-to-back titles, including a run to the Champions League group stages.

Indeed, all was smooth during his time in charge, apart from being in favour of VAR.

As Hansson explained: “He won two titles, got into one Champions League group stage, he played some young players, he adapted a style of play that many players preferred, he managed to phase out a few older players without causing too much drama.

“No huge scandals, not a lot of bad results, a lot of stability. He really did a good job in many ways.

“He wasn’t a fantastic coach in one or two areas, but he was good at basically everything.

“The only ‘bad’ thing about his tenure was a few press conferences where he talked positively about VAR

“Malmö FF have a club decision to be anti-VAR.”

Tomasson signed a three-year deal with Rovers and enjoyed an encouraging first season in charge as the club recorded their highest finish since relegation from the Premier League, even if there was a disappointment at missing out on a top six finish.

Rovers supporters will hope to see Tomasson build on that in his second season at Ewood Park.

So was there surprise when it was Rovers, and the English Championship, that was his destination after leaving Malmo?

“It was kind of obvious that he saw Malmö FF as a stepping stone to a bigger club. Sometimes it felt like more of a good relationship that benefited both parties, and not a relationship with very strong feelings,” Hansson said.

“It was no surprise at all that he was leaving after the 2021 season.

“It wasn’t that much speculation about his new club, because he made it clear he might wait until the summer to take on a new club, which he did.

“A decent club in the Championship is probably where you can end up if you’re doing a good job in Allsvenskan.

“It was the same with Poya Asbaghi (Barnsley) and Graham Potter (Swansea City).”