MOTHERWELL, SCOTLAND - FEBRUARY 06: Jens Berthel Askou during a Motherwell press conference at Fir Park, on February 06, 2026, in Motherwell, Scotland. (Photo by Alan Harvey/SNS Group via Getty Images)
I don’t normally comment when the geniuses of the Ibrox illiterate are trying to make points about Celtic. But I’m going to comment on Ross McCormick and the nonsense that was in the papers yesterday and all through last night about how Celtic will miss out on Askou of Motherwell because we didn’t move fast enough and he will go to the English Premier League.
This is two slices of nonsense for the price of one. In fact, it might be the whole cake. It is ridiculous in several different ways.
For a start, what does Celtic not “moving quickly enough” even mean?
Does it mean we should have appointed him at the start of the season? At the midway point? That we should have appointed him when we got rid of Nancy? Or when Rodgers first left? On what basis would we have done that?
I am not convinced by this guy right now when his side sits just two points behind us. The idea that we should have gone for him weeks or even months ago seems laughable. Especially now we have O’Neill.
That is true even if you are one of the people who believes this guy is a contender for the Celtic job.
Which, as you have probably gathered, I don’t.
I don’t know what the board of directors at this club is doing about our next manager.
I would hope they are not doing nothing although I have always expected that it will happen at the end of the season.
Additionally, I have said that the window to do it might actually be before this title race is settled.
Because once that happens we have to deal with the consequences of it if we are not champions.
Yet if our target had been the manager at Motherwell, I would not think we were conducting any search at all.
We would simply be settling for an option right on our doorstep. A lazy option. A cheap option. Something they could sell to supporters.
On the basis of what?
A good season in the Scottish Premiership? Callum Davidson has had good seasons in the Scottish Premiership. Derek McInnes has had good seasons in the Scottish Premiership. If someone was suggesting we go for Derek McInnes, that would gain no support among our fans at all.
However, it is this whole idea that we are going to lose out on this guy to a team in the English Premier League that really makes me laugh.
That is a complete fantasy. A fantasy dreamed up by people who have gotten completely carried away. The manager of Motherwell is not moving to an English Premier League club. I would put a lot of money on that.
It might be fashionable for the media to push the line that Celtic should go and get this guy, at least while he is still at Motherwell.
I would bet that the tune would dramatically change if Celtic actually hired him. If he did not start like an express train, then all the concerns I have already raised would be amplified from every media outlet in the country.
Outside this country, however, nobody is going to be terribly convinced. No Premier League chairman is going to take a shot on the guy whose last domestic honour was in the Faroese league, for God’s sake. Which part of that is difficult to understand?
The Faroese league to the English Premiership via a fourth-place finish in Scotland with Motherwell is not a normal career progression path.
It is not the standard that Premier League clubs usually go for.
I understand that some people have this fairy tale in their heads.
Additionally, I get that some people think we have discovered a hitherto unknown managerial genius right on our doorstep. I understand that some people think Motherwell, out of all the clubs in world football, somehow got incredibly lucky with this guy.
The rest of the world is going to need a little more convincing.
Ross McCormick thinks that if we made an offer now, Askou would turn us down. You know what? I have never in my life said this before.
But I hope Ross McCormick is right. I hope Ross McCormick is on the money.
I hope that if Celtic were foolish enough to approach this guy on the basis of three quarters of a good season in our league, he would say no.
That would spare this club the nightmare of finding out the hard way that we have screwed up yet another managerial appointment.
That would stop us drifting into disaster because we were too lazy and lacking in ambition to conduct a proper managerial search.
Ross McCormack (not McCormick) is a Celtic season ticket holder and lifelong fan. He didn’t change his allegiance like Neil McCann because Celtic didn’t didn’t fulfil his dreams by signing him.
He feels that Celtic will be missing a trick by not considering JBA, and I think he’s correct.
James, after the debacle of Nancy, I’m sure most Celtic supporters would be open to appointing Askou. I know this sounds ridiculous, but if Celtic had appointed the reasonably capable McInnes rather than Nancy, then we’d be top of the League and be League Cup holders. After your support for Nancy’s appointment from the non competitive MLS, your certainty that Askou doesn’t cut the mustard seems strange.
With my next suggestion, a lot of people will disagree with me, John McGlynn is a guy who could do a job for us, he is a guy with an eye for a player and BR rated him big time.
I know some people wouldn’t be happy with such an appointment amid accusations of a cheap option. but every new manager is a gamble, and unless Celtic bring in an experienced European manager with a bit of a pedigree then I would rather have Askou or McGlynn.
Will Celtic pay top European wages? Will a European manager with a record of success come to the SPFL? I would guess that the answer to those two questions is NO.
Change of tack here, Ffs get the GB back before a week on Saturday. If this Board don’t move on this, then they don’t give a damn for our club. If Hargreaves doesn’t agree then he can GTF.
Completely agree on the Askou and McGlynn shouts. There’s a snobbishness at play here and a football-wide tendency to overlook what is in your own backyard. Look at Man Utd who threw ridiculous money at the “shiny new coach from Portugal” and are now benefitting from having the less exotic Michael Carrick.
There is no chance that Askou would snub Celtic, unless of course we actually do make him an offer, then it would be make your mind up time for him, a yes or a no, but no snub involved. I hope he gets the offer and I hope he makes the right decision and joins the Club.
The day i took notice of anything Toss McCormick said i would hope someone would put my lights out. Anyway, i’ve a feeling the parasites on the board are going to go the cheap route and appoint Maloney & Co. I’ve never wanted to be so wrong. But i wouldn’t put it past them.
What a shit-show at Aberdeen. I stopped following the game 10-minutes into the second-half and we were struggling at 1-1. Eff that, my ticker can’t take it. Think i’ll wait until tomorrow morning before looking for the result.
I was absolutely 100% certain that Benji’s goal would be disallowed, it looked offside to me and even if it wasn’t I was convinced that the MIB would overrule it. I’m still astonished now, but thank God for Benji coming on and helping to get the result for us….and what a result, I am expecting us to win the title now.
That was yet another hard watch. Why do we have to make things so difficult for ourselves every single game. I was sure Nygren was offside but ill take it.
Torture watching these boys
James you are being disingenuous to say that because Motherwell are fourth and we were third (at time of the article) that we shouldn’t be considering Askou. It’s because Motherwell are that close to us that we SHOULD be CONSIDERING him. They are currently as close to us as we are to Hearts (having played a game less than us btw!!) having spent the equivalent of two pints of lager and a packet of crisps on their team. We have spent millions and still lool average and play a far less attractive game of football.
Considering him is not the same as offering him the job but pur Board would be showing their stupidity again if he’s not at least in the current list of possibles. As another poster says you were doubling down on Nancy when the rest of us were saying he was going to be disastrous so not sure why you think Askou wouldn’t be any good with the financial clout we have.
Every elite manager started somewhere ????
He’s done very very well on a very low budget…
The Mark of a good manager for sure !
Pep Guardiola couldnt get a tune out of this squad, and if history repeats itself with the board not investing, God only knows what a new manager will have at his disposal. I heard that Nicholson had approached Ali Bongo!
I agree James our aspirations have to be higher than Jens Berthel Askou but just because we’ve got those higher aspirations it doesn’t mean we’ll get someone to match them. At the moment we’re a club in turmoil, the team has been asset stripped, suffered from gross incompetence by the board, we can’t get players signed in a window, the GB who bring the atmosphere are banned and the supporters are demanding change, that’s not an attractive proposal to any manager at the moment that’s just a fact. We consider ourselves a big club status wise, but we’re not run professionally, we’re the poster club for how not to have a business and the football department run in conjunction with one another in a harmonious way. We’ll struggle to attract any serious candidate as thing currently stand which is why shouts like JBA and John McGlynn have some merit because they might be all we can get with the state we’re in, although the Cektic name still carries weight we’re a shambles on and off the field which is why we’ll end up with Moloney as the manager which I said would happen when he came back to the club. So while I agree our aspirations should be higher we might be forced into another panic appointment, this board have been lucky with appointments in this century, bar Nancy, but luck always runs out in the end and ours finally has. I’d settle for competence just now but with the club in disarray we might be forced to take what we can get and that’s the prospect we face, I’m scared and all of us should be because there’s worse to come before we reach our nadir.