Motherwell boss on Airdrie goal, style, and Russell Martin

The National

10 hours ago

'Oh my god, yeah, I scored against Airdrie!' Berthel Askou said.
'So, I've got a head start there.
'I have to admit, I don't even remember much about the goal, but yeah, it's true.'
The Dane was an uncompromising centre-back in his previous life as a player, and as chance would have it, a summer training camp with Norwich City would pit him against the Fir Park club's bitter Lanarkshire rivals.
'I went on trial [at Norwich],' he explained.
'I'd spent two years in Turkey previously before that. We arrived here in Scotland, because it was Bryan Gunn who was the manager, so we were doing a training camp up here.
'We had some sessions, and we played a training game against Airdrie, and luckily someone hit me straight in my face and it went in! And then I succeeded in convincing them that I was worth keeping.
'I spent two good years in Norwich. Met some very nice people there. Also, some very nice Scottish people.
'I was lucky enough to have two Scottish managers [Gunn and Paul Lambert]. I had some Scottish teammates who also had a history here at the club, with Stephen Hughes, Simon Lappin. And then we actually had some friends outside football who were also Scottish. Very, very nice people.
'So, my initial impression of Scotland has been very, very good.'
Yesterday, it was Berthel Askou's opportunity to make his own good impression as he spoke to the media for the first time since being appointed as Motherwell manager following the shock departure of predecessor Michael Wimmer.
(Image: GordonTerris/Herald&Times) He certainly came prepared. As well as boning up on those connections to his new club from his playing past, he came armed with detailed knowledge of the average margin by which Motherwell have missed out on the top six in four of the last five seasons (3.4 points, if you're asking), and an impressive handle on the varied challenges he will come up against in Scottish football.
But to get a feel for where he may be able to take Motherwell as a manager in the future, it is instructive to hear him speak of his past, and the influences that have made him the coach that he is.
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And Lambert, who once, of course, used to strut around the Fir Park midfield, is someone who made a deep impression.
'He was, I would say, in terms of directness and clarity and how demanding he was, a big influence on my managerial career,' he said.
'He was one of the reasons why when I came back from England and my son started to play football when he was four and a half, I started coaching him while I was still playing.
'I probably wasn't quite as hard on the kids as he was with me! He was very demanding, but it was a very good environment we had in Norwich, so I have great respect for what he did.
'I think we got it right in so many ways. Our approach was really sharp at that time. We found some really good players with a lot of leadership, internal leadership in the middle. A huge drive in their personalities.
'They were mostly British, I think at the end I was the only non-British player in the squad back then. At least in the first year. And I think we had a Spanish loan player as well.
'But it was a very self-driven group. And we just had a winning mentality that is still very inspiring.
'There was an aura about him that inspired and really pushed people to the maximum.'
Berthel Askou is relishing the opportunity to lock horns with another old friend from his time in Norfolk, not only playing alongside new Rangers manager Russell Martin at Carrow Road, but also attending the same pro-licence course as the former Scotland international back in 2019.
He had nothing but good things to say about Martin, even though they have a slightly differing approach to coaching, and he will obviously be looking to best him when the pair meet again in opposing dugouts.
'A fantastic person off the pitch,' he said.
'Very, very professional. Very dedicated. A genuinely good guy. Approached everyone with the same attitude. Very friendly.
'He had great success. I think he moved in from a right-back and became a centre-back in the Premier League. I hadn't seen that coming. And then he became a Scottish international as well
'He started his manager career in Milton Keynes and he's just done really, really well since then.
'He's got a modern approach to football, and so do I. He's very uncompromising in his passing, in his football, which we saw in the Premier League.
'I've probably in my career been a little bit more pragmatic at times. But I would say that maybe I've become more and more uncompromising in terms of if you really want to become really good at something, then you have to be brave enough to do it when it hurts the most sometimes.
'And there are times when results are needed to still get the followership from people around you and the support. That's when you have to take the hardest decisions as a manager.'
Askou hasn't been afraid of the hard decisions though since his playing days came to an end. He left his position as manager of IFK Gothenburg to become the assistant manager of Sparta Prague, for example, and early on in his coaching journey, he left a job with Vendsyssel in his homeland to spread his wings in the Faroe Islands, of all places, with HB Torshavn.
'It was after my first year as a head coach,' he said.
'I was in a small club in Denmark, we got promoted. I took over just before the end of the season in the second league. We were hanging in there and almost lost the chance of promotion. And then we did it through the play-offs.
'It was a very special year. It was a very small club. We had to do everything on our own. We were pumping up the balls, but it was great. Almost cutting the grass and watering the pitch.
'It was a great experience. I even hired my own sporting director after the original one resigned when I was a head coach. Hiring my own boss at that time, a good idea for job security!
'And then, after that year I left. I had some opportunities. But then this came up from the Faroe Islands.
'It's not the biggest football league in Europe but it was a top team who had finished fourth. They were used to being maybe the most winning team in Faroe Islands.
'Compared to the level in Faroe Islands, they had some good players. Good technical players. It was all artificial grass. But it was an opportunity for me to do something different. To go my own way.
'But also, to get a top team at an early stage in my career in the top league trying to push and win a title. And then take them into...maybe not the group stage of European football, but still a taste of European football in the European qualification. So, I thought. Why not?
'And the total experience in the Faroe Islands, with the passion for football, driving a team towards titles, winning the double, playing away against Glentoran in a European tie, it was a very good experience for me very early in my career. So, I'm very happy I did it.
'And then an opportunity came up to go back to Denmark in the Super League.'
He is though, he says, at Fir Park for the long haul, as he attempted to appease any worries among the Motherwell fanbase that he may go the same way as Wimmer before too long.
(Image: GordonTerris/Herald&Times)
'I was in Horsens for two-and-a-half years,' he said.
'I signed a four year deal in Gothenburg and I had no plans of going anywhere. We were trying to rebuild the club from risking relegation. Which would be a disaster for a club of that size. But that was the reality. That's where the club was.
'We made it in the last game of the league that season. We stayed up by scoring to make it 2-1 in the 96th minute to get us out of relegation. And then we started rebuilding with an even more brave style of play for six months.
'Then I got a fantastic opportunity to go to a very big club in Sparta Prague, getting into the Champions League, getting that experience that early.
'And I considered that for a while, and then I decided to go. And then things brought me to Copenhagen.
'Being an assistant manager there, I knew that when the right moment arrived, I wanted to become a manager again. I had to take it. And now it was time.
'So, I have no plans of going anywhere but here for as long as the club wants me here. I feel we're pushing, going forward in the right direction. And I know we're not going to be top six tomorrow obviously. We're going to build sustainably. But we're going to push as much as we can.
'I'm very excited to be here, because I feel I've found a place where I will thrive really well as a person and as a football manager. And I'm willing to see how far we can take this club.
'In order to find out how far we can take it. I need to stick with it.'
Berthel Askou believes he can build something special at Fir Park on the foundations left behind by Wimmer, first by implementing a modern, possession-based style, and then by ensuring that the production pipeline from the academy doesn't dry up when Lennon Miller leaves the building.
'Yeah of course,' he said.
'You see the benefits when you look at Lennon Miller. And I've seen it in Copenhagen.
'There, there is also a 2006 player [Victor Froholdt] who is now the best player in the league. He also played for Denmark three times now and is probably going to be sold for a record sum in Danish football.
'I've given 25 or 26 under 19 players their first game in my five and a half years as a head coach. I know what it's like and I love seeing young people develop and thrive. And I'm very excited about that.
'It's also one of the reasons why I thought this job was interesting. The weight of the academy is big. It's important to get young players into the team.
'Some of them might start in the school just around the corner. And then their career takes off in here just across the way, and not even a road in between.
'The next building is the local football stadium, and then they might end up somewhere in a big European club when they're 20 years old. How fantastic it is to see people fulfil their dreams.
'I think it gives an extra layer to any football club when you have an academy where you have the academy staff and the players be part of it.
'It was the same in Gothenburg. I've been part of it in Copenhagen as well. And also, especially in the Faroe Islands where it's not so easy to get players from abroad.
'So, there's a lot of homegrown players there, and I've always liked that.'