Motherwell chairman Kyrk MacMillan says that ambition had a huge part to play in the appointment of Jens Berthel Askou as the new manager of the club, with his front-foot philosophy a key aspect in the board’s decision to hire the Dane.
All at Fir Park were rocked by the shock departure of Michael Wimmer at the end of last season due to family reasons, and MacMillan was as disappointed as any other Motherwell supporter that the journey the German had set them on had seemed to end so abruptly.
He was determined though that the new man in the dugout would be someone who would be willing and able to pick up where Wimmer left off, and implement the aggressive style that he wants Motherwell to be known for.
Having whittled down a huge list of prospective candidates to land on then FC Copenhagen assistant manager Berthel Askou, he is certain the club have got the right man to do just that.
Speaking on the ‘Well Society’s ‘Our Club, Our Podcast’, MacMillan said: “We want to be ambitious, and we make no secret of that. I’d love to see Motherwell winning the cup again.
“I’m not promising anyone that is going to happen next season, don’t misunderstand me, but there’s nothing wrong with having that ambition and we want the manager to feel that too.
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“There were about 100 applications that came in for the role, and some really good ones as well.
“We were pretty clear that the style of football, that journey we had been on with Michael, was really positive.
“So, first of all, it was right, what profiles do we think are aligning with that, what profiles do we think will allow us to continue on that journey and not have to kind of rip it up and start again?
“From there, there was an automatic sifting process for some of the profiles, and from there we do a kind of deeper dive into them.
“There are data analysis sets that are created by an external body that allows us to dig in a little bit more to their stats in terms of PPDA, xG and all these sorts of things, that allows us to see if this is a manager who plays on the front foot and doesn’t just talk like that, he enacts it on the pitch.
“We go through that process, and ultimately Jens came through a contact and landed in my phone. So, it wasn’t one of the initial applications that came through the emailing the club type of route.
“There is a lot of that, a lot of things that get done through network, and that’s probably been a bit of a learning curve for me over the past few months as well, and building and growing that network is really important, for sure.
“We went through that process, and ultimately we landed on Jens. There were some really good people in there, but ultimately I think we found a good guy.”
As well as his preferred style of play, MacMillan found that Berthel Askou’s values in terms of hard work and discipline – both on and off the pitch – aligned with those the board are trying to implement within the team and within the club.
“I think he’s a very honest character,” he said.
“He likes to play football on the front foot, which is really important, press high up the pitch and be aggressive in terms of how we equip ourselves on the pitch. That style is going to continue, for sure.
“I think the fitness aspect for us is something we want to continue with the players as well. That leads into the profiles that we bring into the club too.
“One of the things we’ve been quite focused on, and that was coming through with Michael too, was how do we get the stats of the players up to a level that we feel they are able to leave everything on the pitch?
“It’s a really boring stat, but most teams on average will run about 95 -98 kilometres over the 90 minutes between the 10 outfield players, and ultimately what Michael was working to - and it will be similar with Jens - is getting that to 105-110 kilometres, because ultimately what that means is that if you run that extra 10 percent, you have an extra man around the ball.
“So, again, that was what we wanted to see from the profile we brought into the club. High energy, and we’ll see where that takes us.
"But it’s exciting for sure.”
