Every word of Jens Berthel Askou first Motherwell presser: Transfer plans, style of play and new assistant

Jens Berthel Askou has held his first Motherwell press conference as the new boss addressed a variety of topics.

The former Horsens and Gothenburg manager has been appointed as the successor to Michael Wimmer at Fir Park ahead of the new Premiership season. Pre season has this week ahead of Premier Sports Cup fixtures beginning on July 12th vs Clyde and work has started in a new era for the club.

Askou met the media for the first time on Wednesday to discuss his arrival, transfer plans in terms of how much work is needed done on the squad, when a new assistant manager may arrive after Ahmet Koc’s exit and style of play. Here is everything he had to say.

What attracted you to Motherwell?

“Oh, many things. Proud club in its history, and ownership. A new board with new ideas, more modern way of thinking, some plans of renewing Motherwell. But still with respect for the tradition, for the fans, and how much the club means for the community, which I really like. Because there's a special atmosphere you feel directly when you enter the premises here. Yesterday when I arrived from the airport, it was packed with children in the middle of the school run. So you feel the strong connection to the community here, the different and multiple generations, which I really appreciate. And then obviously the platform of trying to do something modern and break some barriers in Scottish football, and the openness and willingness to do that with the new people who have come in recently.”

What made you want to go back into management here at Motherwell?

“Because it's what I feel I'm the best at and what I thrive the most with. My career has taken me different places, some of them unplanned, but that's how football is sometimes. A year ago I had an opportunity to go to a very big club (Sparta Prague) at an early stage in my career and see if I could get a taste of Champions League, which we did. And then after that it brought me to Copenhagen, which is the biggest club in Denmark, and with an opportunity to win something in my home country, which was a special experience winning the double recently. And working with some really, really good people and getting some inside experience from big organisations, top performing at European and international level, which was a great experience for me that I could use in my next step as a manager or a head coach somewhere. And I think I will use some of that experience. I've got a deeper knowledge on things and how to implement things. Even though this is a club with a little fewer resources than the last two clubs I've been in, there's a lot of things and ideas and structure from the bigger organisations I've been in that we can use going forward into the process where we're going now.

Am I right in thinking that you already know a couple of the managers who are here from previous clubs? Jimmy Thelin, did you come up against him? And also you played alongside Russell Martin at Norwich, how much are you looking forward to locking horns with them again? And have you spoken to them at all?

“Very much, I haven't spoken to Jimmy yet, but we had a very good relationship when I was in Sweden, very, very good guy, very respectful, humble and a very good and successful coach in Sweden. He's done a fantastic job here since he arrived. They really took off when he came. And I really look forward to meeting him and hearing about his experience in Scotland. And obviously Russ, who was a great teammate back in the days in Norwich, has done fantastic with his career, and I've had contact with him over the years. We actually met, I think it was in 2019, when I was doing my pro licence under 21 Euros in Italy, and suddenly we bumped into each other, and he was also on a pro licence course. So it was quite something, it was fun. It's going to be great to see both of them, but also all the other great managers who are here, and doing a good job. I look forward to meeting them and getting inspired and getting tested and challenged, so I really look forward to that as well.”

What's the biggest challenge facing you here at Motherwell?

“I think the biggest challenge is that there's a lot of work to be done right now in terms of organising. First of all, because I've just come in recently, so a lot of loose ends. There's a big job to do with building the squad, because a lot of players have left. Then, as it always is, when you come in as a new leader and you want to implement your ideas, it's always going to be intense for the first six months, because everything is from scratch. They need to get to know me and my ideas, the way I work, so everyone is on their toes even more. It makes the environment and the everyday quite electric in the beginning, but it's also going to be energy consuming and energy giving at the same time. So a lot of interesting and very exciting challenges and jobs to do. We already kicked off doing it, so we're very busy. Everyone is doing their very best to support me and to move forward with things. Since I arrived yesterday, it's been 24 really, really good hours so far.”

How do you assess where the squad is at the moment, and how much work is needed to make Motherwell where you envisage they will be come the start of the season?

“It's hard for me to give you a specific number if that's what you're looking for, to say how much work. A lot, obviously. But I will also use the experience from the staff who's already here, and all the information they've gathered and the knowledge they have on the players, and what we need and what they are capable of. And I'm gathering as fast as I can all that information, and I'm trying to take that in. And then obviously we will, with the help of each other and my new ideas, slowly but steadily move it forward. And I'm sure that soon you will see what we try to do, and over time you will also see us being more and more effective with what we do. And in more time we will reap the benefits of what we will do, and what we will try and implement.”

For the Motherwell fans, how would you want your team to play? What kind of style of play should they be expecting? What would be your message to the supporters?

“I'm not going into detail, because I think it's fair to present that to the players first, and I haven't had the opportunity to do that yet. But the football I prefer to play, and what we want to do, we want to play some dynamic football with players who want the ball, who want to do something with the ball, who want to take the initiative with big intensity on and off the ball. Aggressiveness, discipline, structure. We want to expose the opposition for a lot of positional challenges in the game, not just the long ball in behind, that will still be an important part of football, but we need to have more layers and more detail in our way of playing football, using more dimensions in the game than what Scottish football maybe traditionally has. Again, we want to try and break some barriers and some traditions, but still with that intensity and that team spirit that every fan would want to see, and that I expect to see as well. A team who desperately wants to win and wants to demonstrate and show that positive body language and a lot of intensity. So hopefully some tempo-filled football, which would be attractive to watch, attractive to come and play, developing to train and to play, and in the end effective.”

You've talked a bit about breaking barriers, breaking traditions, what are those barriers you want to break down in Scottish football?

“I think Scottish football has been through a good development over recent years, like many other leagues. Some leagues are more pioneering and where everyone is following, I think the Scottish league, as far as I know, there's still a lot of variation in the way teams approach the game, whereas if you compare it with the Danish league, there's not a lot of variation anymore. It's very streamlined to a very modern, northern European passing, possession-based style with playing out from the back. Whereas I think there are some teams who have gone in that direction. Celtic, for example, with Brendan Rodgers, I'm absolutely positive that Rangers and Russell Martin are very uncompromising in his style of play, will play some very interesting football going forward. More teams have tried to do it also in the other end of the league, and some are still doing it very traditionally, which I think is a very interesting challenge, to be in a league where the variety of what you face is big. And in Motherwell, with the recent manager, he's tried to modernise the game a little bit, have more passes in the team, and will try to use that platform that he's built, and then work from there.”

Just keeping that in mind, you obviously want to change the style a bit, play modern football. What are your targets in terms of league position, finishing, other things? Other than just the style, what are your targets, what have the board said to you on your job?

“I think we shouldn't talk about placements right now, because as I just answered one of the previous questions, one of the big challenges is that there are a lot of things to do still before we can say what this squad and this club is capable of this season. But what I will say is, I've also looked at the club history over the recent years. If you take the last five years, we've been in the top six once. We've been 3.4 points off on average in reaching the top six. So is it possible if we lift things and do things a little bit better over 33 games? I think it's possible to find a win and a draw and we will try and do that. Obviously. And then with respect to the finances in the club, with the present situation, we want to do it sustainably, both financially and football-wise and see if we can break into the top six and see if we can stabilise the club. We know that it takes time, it takes continuity, which the club hasn't had recently. I'm the third manager in six months, so we need some time to get things in the right direction. But we also have an interesting opportunity here with possibilities to really form the squad as much as we can, with a lot of players out of contract. Then with respect to the finances, and again, over time, see if we can lift everything off-pitch, on the pitch. The experience and the talks I've had with the board so far is that they're very interested and very eager, and very positive about lifting things in different areas.”

Where do you rate Scottish football when you compare it to the other leagues you've managed? In terms of the quality of it, where do you see it sitting?

“I think that's a very difficult matter, because do you compare Celtic to one of them, or do you compare Motherwell to one of them? I think the Scottish league if you take into consideration that there are only 12 teams in the league, the difference from bottom to top is huge compared to the Danish league. So it's a very hard question to answer, I would say. But again, it gives me and all the other managers in this league a very interesting task to be able to compete at both very different levels from week to week, but also against very different styles of play and approaches to the game. So that would be my best answer to that question, but obviously there are some really, really good international teams who perform well at Champions League level already, and then there are some teams that might struggle a little bit playing in Europe right now.”

It was announced earlier that the previous assistant is moving on, do you have a new assistant in mind? How soon do you expect that to happen, if so?

“Again, it's gone really fast, we've started the process obviously, but I don't have one sitting downstairs already, but we are doing everything we can to get organised and trying to find the replacement for Ahmet. So it's also one of the challenges we're facing, but also an interesting one, which gives us an opportunity to get the perfect one in, and if that means that it's going to take some days or a week or two, then I'm positive that the guys that I have with me already, they will help us through the initial period of the pre-season in a very good way, they're very positive and very keen to help, and have a lot of knowledge about the players and the club. And then, as I said, we're working tirelessly to get the last bits and the last persons in, and of course it's a key person with an assistant manager, especially for me coming in as a new manager. But we'll do our best to do it as fast as possible, that's for sure.”

There's obviously been a lot of speculation about Lennon Miller's future, do you anticipate him still being here, is there any update on any bids, any interest at the moment?

“There probably is, but it's not been top of mind of what I've been doing today, so I'll probably need to get that update myself. I know he's a fantastic player, he's just gone into the national team, he's a big profile for Scottish football, and for sure he's going to face a fantastic international career, and then we'll see over time if it's going to be this summer that he will take the next step. I know the rumours, I know there is a lot of discussion and expectations, which he's done this to create all these expectations by performing really well. I haven't met him yet because he's got a few extra days off, because he's been with the national team, so I think it would be fair for me to meet him first and have some good discussions with him, before I answer any specific questions about his future.

Have you met any of the players yet?

“Yes, I've met most of them today, they were in for a medical screening. So it was nice to meet them, very informally, just to say hi in the gym, and hear a little bit about what they've been doing on the holiday, are they ready to kick on, they were very positive and buzzing and happy and excited. So far what I've heard, it was a positive day also from the medical staff's point of view.

And training starts tomorrow, pre-season training?

“Yeah, we'll do some testing tomorrow on the pitch, physical testing, and then on Friday we'll bring the balls.”

The season starts in less than a month, compared to where you've been, how different will your pre-season be set up, as opposed to maybe somewhere in Sweden or Denmark?

“In Sweden, for example, there isn't much pre-season in the summer, so it's very different. It's a week off and then you go again, more or less, whereas there's a long pre-season. So every league and every club is different, and it's also different from club to club, where are you, do you need to find a lot of new players, or do you just need one or two adjustments? Is a new manager coming in, or is it the same? Obviously there's going to be a lot of new things we need to implement, so there's probably going to be more meetings than a normal pre-season than if it was the same manager who'd been there for three years. But I'm positive that we'll spend all the minutes and hours we have together, as good as we can, to get to know each other fast. I think it's good that the league starts, not in a week or two, but that we have some time to get to know each other, and we will use every day we can really, really well. So I'm happy that we have a bit of time, and then I will obviously work with the rest of the management with getting all the stuff done around the team when we're not on the pitch.”