Motherwell 25/26 Premiership games in full as chairman details how Jens Berthel Askou was hired manager

Motherwell chairman Kyrk MacMillan has pulled the curtain back on the hire of Jens Berthel Askou as manager - as the club’s 25/26 Premiership fixtures are released.

The former Gothenburg and Horsens manager’s first league match will come against Rangers live on Sky Sports with Motherwell also facing St Mirren, Hearts, Kilmarnock and Hibs in the first five games. Askou has arrived at Fir Park as the successor to Michael Wimmer, who quit in surprise circumstances at the end of the 24/25 season amid family issues in Germany.

MacMillan has now addressed the hiring process for Askou. Speaking on The Well Society’s Our Club, Our Podcast, the chairman detailed the amount of interest in the role and the lengths they went to keep the Danish boss under wraps until he was announced. He explained: “There was about 100 applications that came in for the role and some really, really good applications. Again, going back to it, I think we were pretty clear that sub-committee of the board, Brian Caldwell the chief executive, Greg Anderson from the Welk Society and myself. We were pretty clear that the style of football and everything, that kind of journey that we've been on in those few months with Michael was really positive. So it was, first of all, what profiles do we think are aligning with that? What profiles do we think are going to continue that journey?

Motherwell chairman on Jens Berthel Askou

“Not to kind of rip it up and start again. So from there, there's probably an automatic sifting process for some of the profiles. Then from there, we do a bit of a deeper dive into them. So there's data analysis sets that are created by an external body that allows us to dig in a bit more to their stats in terms of PPDA and XG and all these kind of things that allows us to kind of see, OK, is it a manager that plays on the front foot?

“Maybe just doesn't talk like that, but actually enacts it on the pitch. So we go through that process. Ultimately, Jens came through a contact that landed in my phone. So it wasn't one of the initial applications that came through the emailing the club type route. But there's a lot of that. I think there's a lot that gets done through network.

“That's been a learning curve for me probably over the last few months as well. And kind of building and kind of growing that network is really important, for sure. So, yeah, we went through that process and ultimately, we landed on Jens. There were some good people in there, but I think we found a really good guy.

“I picked him up at Glasgow Airport last week, kind of late at night. We wanted to get him into the stadium. But, you know, it was really important, again, that we kind of go down the confidentiality route. Jens was still under contract, still in employment. We did the official thing with Copenhagen as well. Because, of course, you know, it's important that we're quite transparent there. And we do things in a, you know, transparent and open manner, don't do anything that we shouldn't be doing.

“So we got Jens along. We spent a bit of time with him in the stadium. Took him up to Dalziel to see the training facilities and then we had a good long night. We had dinner together, looking at presentations. Looking at, again, learning a bit more about how he likes to play football. And spend a bit of time together just as a person as well. I've mentioned it before, but we need to bring good people to the club, not just somebody who plays really, really good football. So, both of the things need to be right. Ee kind of came to a decision quite quickly that this is our guy and this is who we want to move forward with and I think the feeling was mutual. He's really excited about coming over and getting started into the role.”

Motherwell 25/26 Premiership fixtures in full

First five matches: Rangers (H), St Mirren, Hearts (A), Kilmarnock, Hibs (H)

Askou said earlier this week: 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.”