The Jens Berthel Askou Discussion Thread

[MJC]

On 6/12/2025 at 2:11 PM, mio said:

mjc walking down the fir park road lol

I don’t go to the football to enjoy myself and be happy and merry, I go to support my club. If I wanted a good time I’d join the Tartan Army.

On 6/12/2025 at 3:29 PM, FirParkCornerExile said:

No manager ever comes with any guarantees. Right now there is a 50/50 chance good or bad. I'd have had the same feeling no matter who we appointed. Good luck to him and at least he is not one of the Scottish Football Merry go rounders or media "jobs for the boys" . That for me is a bonus right away. 

Of course and I will give him my full support, certainly to start with. However I just get a bad feeling about this appointment. Managed/coached ten clubs and he’s only 42 and has no track record of hanging about anywhere for any length of time. Not what we need imo and it looks like we have went ‘left field’ for the sake of going ‘left field’. I would have been much happier with a Robbie Neilson or Tony Doc type appointment.

[mio]

5 minutes ago, MJC said:

I don’t go to the football to enjoy myself and be happy and merry, I go to support my club. If I wanted a good time I’d join the Tartan army

I feel for you if that’s the case. I ultimately go to enjoy myself and be with family and friends etc a good performance or result is the icing on the cake. I hope the new manager gives you some joy this season, I sincerely do.

[MelvinBragg]

16 hours ago, Toxteth O'Grady said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cdxv1vd7wx7o

 

Who was the last manager appointed anywhere than came in promising slow,, passive football. They all say they want aggressive front foot footbsll. Many fail to deliver anything resembling it...

[wellon]

49 minutes ago, MJC said:

I don’t go to the football to enjoy myself and be happy and merry, I go to support my club. If I wanted a good time I’d join the Tartan Army.

Of course and I will give him my full support, certainly to start with. However I just get a bad feeling about this appointment. Managed/coached ten clubs and he’s only 42 and has no track record of hanging about anywhere for any length of time. Not what we need imo and it looks like we have went ‘left field’ for the sake of going ‘left field’. I would have been much happier with a Robbie Neilson or Tony Doc type appointment.

Bud, I wouldn't have minded neilson but I trust the process and it's an innovative appointment again.

Your " feelings/ predictions " are invariably wrong but doesn't stop you giving them , so keep doing it , it's a forum.

If uou don't enjoy the football,  you shouldn't go, just give the club your money, that's still supporting them...

[twistandshout1983]

I am fully behind the new manager

No idea who he was really , he played for Norwich under Paul Lambert so must have at least a bit of a knowledge of UK football

We have not been a great watch really for at least 4-5 years now with the exception of KVV scoring goals for fun in those last 3 months, and Theo Bair's half season .

I heard someone suggest few days ago we should have appointed either Craig Levein or Mark McGhee , the second guy got a second chance and we seen what happened 

[weeyin]

49 minutes ago, MelvinBragg said:

Who was the last manager appointed anywhere than came in promising slow,, passive football. They all say they want aggressive front foot footbsll. Many fail to deliver anything resembling it...

High press, is relatively new, though.

They didn't call it slow, passive, but the Spanish Tiki-Taka is much slower and less direct most of the time and was all the rage for a while. Then you have the counter attacking style that was (and still is) popular with many coaches. Again, not aggressive or front foot.

[texanwellfan]

The known options were very uninspiring, some maybe even scary!! I’m glad we are taking a chance on an unknown quantity. Not sure if it makes any difference to our chances of success or failure but at least it’s an unknown.  With the ususual crowd I think the odds were more in favor of failure

[weeyin]

Any time any team in Scotland takes the opportunity to break the "good honest team" mould, I'm all for it.

Whether it's Laszlo at Hearts, Ange at Celtic or ourselves with Wimmer.  It doesn't always work out, but it's worth the risk to bring some new ideas into a too-often stale league.

 

[MJC]

1 hour ago, wellon said:

Bud, I wouldn't have minded neilson but I trust the process and it's an innovative appointment again.

Your " feelings/ predictions " are invariably wrong but doesn't stop you giving them , so keep doing it , it's a forum.

If uou don't enjoy the football,  you shouldn't go, just give the club your money, that's still supporting them...

I’ve not worded that well so I’ll try again.

I do enjoy going because it’s a life long passion following Motherwell FC. I know however that I’m not always going to ‘enjoy’ the game because that’s just the way it is and always will be for a club of our stature, but I go regardless and wouldn’t miss it, even though it often has me tearing my hair out. 
 

So I’m afraid Motherwell FC are stuck with me.

 

[robsterwood]

Here's hoping as baldies go he's more Slot than ten hag. 🙂😁

[wellsince75]

18 hours ago, MJC said:

Of course and I will give him my full support, certainly to start with. However I just get a bad feeling about this appointment. Managed/coached ten clubs and he’s only 42 and has no track record of hanging about anywhere for any length of time. Not what we need imo and it looks like we have went ‘left field’ for the sake of going ‘left field’. I would have been much happier with a Robbie Neilson or Tony Doc type appointment.

I can see where you're coming from re the 'bad feeling'.   Looking at both his playing and managerial career he hasn't stayed anywhere for more than a year or two.   

Feel we need someone who could so 3+ years, we really need continuity to move forward.  I wish him the best and hope this lasts more than a season. I'm sure we all do. 

In short it's completely understandable why your spider sense is tingling. 

[Kmcalpin]

21 hours ago, MJC said:

Of course and I will give him my full support, certainly to start with. However I just get a bad feeling about this appointment. Managed/coached ten clubs and he’s only 42 and has no track record of hanging about anywhere for any length of time. Not what we need imo and it looks like we have went ‘left field’ for the sake of going ‘left field’. I would have been much happier with a Robbie Neilson or Tony Doc type appointment.

Its fair to say that appointing Jens Askou is risky. Any managerial appointment carries a degree of risk. At our level, opting for one of the Scottish managers' old boys club would have been less risky but would also be less interesting and possibly not carry with it the same possibility of success. Many on here cherish an exciting brand of football above most other factors and that is what it is. Your view of preferring a Robbie Neilson or Tony Doc is perfectly valid.  Of that grouping, I would have said that Robbie Neilson was the best candidate, but I agree with the path of choosing a left field candidate. Like you, my main concern with Askou is the short lived nature of his previous appointments.  I can only assume that this aspect of his CV was scrutinised during due diligence and was satisfactorily addressed.  In this day and age a tenure of about 3 years would represent success. 

 

[santheman]

If we werent continually having to look for a new manager what else would we have talk about during the close season.

Seriously though every new manager is a risk. This one is no different to anyone else we appoint.

He might bugger off after a season or he might just bring something we've all been looking for and become a club legend.

Either way I'm more excited about this appointment than I would be if we had gone with one of the recycled shit tactics Scottish managers.

[stv]

Scottish football is stagnant . All the usual home grown managers play same type of shit football tactically. Learned from the same books probably .

One team plays one way so the other sets up to negate that. This along with playing each other 4 times if not more a season does make for boring stuff , boring managers with no room to trying something different . It's boring as fuk to watch. The majority of games in the league now are well below the standard they should be .Maybe someone from outside can bring something different along and bring back a bit of excitement back into a Saturday.

I live in hope.

And by the by this attitude is reflected in the National team as well. The manager makes watching paint dry seem exciting.

[mfc]

2 minutes ago, stv said:

Scottish football is stagnant . All the usual home grown managers play same type of shit football tactically. Learned from the same books probably .

One team plays one way so the other sets up to negate that. This along with playing each other 4 times if not more a season does make for boring stuff , boring managers with no room to trying something different . It's boring as fuk to watch. The majority of games in the league now are well below the standard they should be .Maybe someone from outside can bring something different along and bring back a bit of excitement back into a Saturday.

I live in hope.

And by the by this attitude is reflected in the National team as well. The manager make watching paint dry seem exciting.

You've nailed my thoughts word for word there.

[grizzlyg]

Any managerial appointment is a risk. I am glad we have went leftfield and if Askou is taking this job as a stepping stone then the only way he can progress is by doing a good job with ourselves. 

In other news I offered my neighbour £20 for a shot on their stairlift.  I think they are going to take me up on it! 🤪🤪

[dennyc]

On 6/14/2025 at 12:18 PM, MJC said:

I don’t go to the football to enjoy myself and be happy and merry, I go to support my club. If I wanted a good time I’d join the Tartan Army.

Of course and I will give him my full support, certainly to start with. However I just get a bad feeling about this appointment. Managed/coached ten clubs and he’s only 42 and has no track record of hanging about anywhere for any length of time. Not what we need imo and it looks like we have went ‘left field’ for the sake of going ‘left field’. I would have been much happier with a Robbie Neilson or Tony Doc type appointment.

You could be right regards the minimal time he has spent at each of his Clubs. But only time will tell if the same thing happens with us. Hopefully he will turn out to be the long term solution we need.

Of course we could have gone 'safer' by appointing either of the two you mention. Some no doubt would have preferred we had gone down that route. You also highlighted  that you go along to games to support the Club that is in your blood, even though on most occasions you do not expect to be entertained.  I wonder exactly how much you would have have enjoyed what either Neilson or Docherty would have dished up entertainment wise?

Wimmer was a breath of fresh air and for the first time in what seemed like forever I actually enjoyed going to matches. It was no longer a chore which I felt obliged to carry out. So I was disappointed family circumstances brought about his departure. But I still don't know if he was any good as a Manager. Comparing him to Askou, it strikes me that Askou has more of a track record and might have more to offer. But every appointment is a gamble so we will just have to wait and see how things work out.

Maybe come the end end of the year we can revisit whether going to watch Motherwell is less of a habit and a bit more of an entertainment. For both our sakes I hope it is. 

 

[Spiderpig]

4 hours ago, grizzlyg said:

 

In other news I offered my neighbour £20 for a shot on their stairlift.  I think they are going to take me up on it! 🤪🤪

Your pre season routine is not going well, I have the fear for the season ahead if that's the standard 😬.