Blackburn Rovers boss Jon Dahl Tomasson has outlined his reasons for loaning skipper Lewis Travis to the Blues, a move first revealed by TWTD this morning but yet to be formally confirmed.
Travis is at Portman Road today to complete the detail of his switch to the Blues, Town having fought off competition from Millwall, who had an £800,000 bid rebuffed in the summer, and Preston.
The 26-year-old has started only two of Blackburn’s last 10 matches, leading to speculation that there might have been some sort of fallout between the manager and his captain.
However, the former Denmark international forward says that’s not the case.
"It's not official yet but he is going away,” Tomasson told the Lancashire Telegraph.
"Trav came to the club in the summer and said that he wanted to go away.
"He didn't succeed in the summer and then he came back in October and said he wanted to go away. The reason are that he wanted to play every week in position six, defensive midfield.
"[Sondre] Tronstad has done really, really well. I have absolutely no problem with Trav, he is a great lad. This is football.
"When a player wants to go away like that, that's the dynamic of football. He now has the opportunity to play at another club for a couple of months. Hopefully, he does really, really well.
"It also creates the opportunity for us as a club. His wages are one of the highest in the squad, which gives us the opportunity to get other players in.
"I expected this could happen, it's a player who wanted to go away twice because he wants to play in one position. We have to respect that.
"I did not fall out with him, absolutely not. I think he's a good lad, we can take that rumour out. I had a good relationship with him.
"This is football, players come and go. That's part of the game. He played a lot for me over all the months, 18 months.
"Experience is always important, we know that. It's also important that a player wants to be in the building.”
Tomasson says Rovers were prepared to allow Travis, who is contracted until the summer of 2026, to leave in the close season had they received the right offer: "If you look at last summer, with everything that happened and the budget cutting, we lost so much experience and players that had played at this level.
"The club would have let him go but they didn't get the amount for him in the summer. There are a few players that went away but the money came into the club which was needed.”
Blackburn have announced the signing of another midfielder, Yasin Ayari, on loan from Brighton.