EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND - APRIL 11: Motherwell's Jens Berthel Askou during a William Hill Premiership match between Heart of Midlothian and Motherwell at Tynecastle Park, on April 11, 2026, in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo by Craig Foy/SNS Group via Getty Images)
For quite a while this season, there has been talk about Celtic possibly hiring the Motherwell manager Jens Berthel Askou. Everyone knows how I feel about that. To say I am not in favour would be an understatement. To say I think it would be madness is closer to the mark.
Tonight, the STV podcast (and I did not even know there was such a ghastly thing until now) carried a report confirming that he is popular within the Celtic hierarchy.
Well, of course he is.
I confirmed that story on the podcast last week after hearing it from a very good source. He is definitely one of the names Celtic are considering. There is no question about that. It is not a media rumour or idle speculation. It is a fact.
He is being discussed inside Celtic Park as a serious option for the job.
That tells you everything about the poverty of imagination at Celtic Park and the ghastly people running this club.
Askou was not known to anyone at Celtic before this season.
Why would he have been? His career has been underwhelming, to say the least. A league and cup double in the Faroe Islands remains his only career achievement in terms of silverware. There is not a single person at Celtic Park who would have had this guy on the radar as a managerial candidate before this season. Not one.
The only reason they know who he is now is because of what he has done at Motherwell, and that appeals to them for two reasons. First, he is right on the doorstep. It does not take much imagination to go and knock on his door. Second, he would be cheap and, they presume, would take what he was given in terms of players.
They look at what he has done at Motherwell and think, if he can replicate that at Celtic, would that not be nice?
Yes, it would be great if they wanted to take us from our current third place to fourth place, or maybe even fifth place, which is still a realistic possibility for him and for his Motherwell side since they have not won in the last five games.
That is the problem with the knee-jerk reaction people have when they see someone doing well within reasonable expectations and suddenly decide they are watching a guru.
The talk about Motherwell playing the best football in the league has already faded. In fact, if you look at the papers today, you would think it was the Ibrox club who were the world-beaters, who had the elite manager and all the rest of it. A lot of the hype around Askou has dropped into the background.
Not at Celtic Park, though. There, these people are half-lazy and stone stupid to boot, and they may still be willing to inflict this mistake on us.
A lot of managers come into this league and try weird and wonderful things. For a while, his system looked as though it had unlocked something and found answers. It is not unusual for a manager with a new system to arrive at a new club and bamboozle the opposition for a while. For a spell, he can look like a genius.
It looks far less convincing now that he is going through a rough spell. In fact, it may be wise to ask whether his system has already been worked out by the clubs around him. If that is the case, then hiring him would look like an even bigger mistake.
Because football does not stand still. Other clubs work you out. Once they do, the question becomes simple: what else have you got?
That, to use the language of fairy tales, is often the point where the coach and four horses turn back into a pumpkin and a bundle of mice. That is where the magic stops working and you finally see what it was hiding.
I am not saying this guy is a busted flush. I am not saying Motherwell will not finish fourth. What I am saying is that this looks like a warning shot, but I know this club is very, very good at ignoring warning shots.
The question asked on the STV podcast was this: would Celtic really consider hiring a guy whose team finishes fifth in the SPFL?
The answer, not surprisingly, is yes. Of course, our club would consider that. Of course, these lazy, arrogant fools who run Celtic at the moment would do something that dumb. It is not crazier than hiring the guy whose team finished fourth in the SPFL, and I know for a fact there are some of them who want to do it.
This is exactly what vindicates the strategy of fans holding off on renewing their season tickets straight away.
These people have a massive job in front of them. They need to appoint the next manager. They need to give us some hint of what kind of backing he is likely to get. Otherwise, they are asking people to spend that money blind.
If this is the limit of their imagination, I expect buyer’s remorse on a huge scale.
There is nothing to recommend this idea. Nothing whatsoever.
It is a dreadful idea and it may even be one of the worst ideas in this board’s long history of dreadful ideas. It is exactly the sort of thinking that has inspired the movement to get them out.
The fact that some people inside Celtic Park still think this is a good idea only makes that more urgent. They do not have a clue.
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James your the guy who was a cheerleader for Nancy, who’s team finished 7th in the MLS an uncompetitive League not any better than the SPL.
I criticise this Board for their mismanagement of Celtic, but whoever is the new manager will get my support. Askou’s Motherwell has impressed me this season, We’ll see how they do in the last five games. You’ve got them finishing 5th, where do you get that from, at the moment they are 4th 3 points and 9 goals ahead of Hibs.They’ve more or less got the same fixtures in the last 5 games, I think the ‘Well will finish 4th.
Askou deserves a wee bit more respect than you’re giving him.
If they’re going for the top dog in Scottish Football…
Right now and most of this season in fact – That’s McInnes !
This is Celtic under Dermot Desmond and his little meek weak puppy dog Mute Mike Nicolson, disciple of Dermot’s big dog bully Peter.
“ First, he is right on the doorstep. It does not take much imagination to go and knock on his door. Second, he would be cheap and, they presume, would take what he was given in terms of players”
That is the “worldwide search criteria” right there! So he’s absolutely odds on for the job!!
Other teams have worked out his system WOW,other teams worked out our system weeks ago and over run and bullied us in midfield and still we play the same system,
Where’s the elite manager or is SM in charge of the system we try and play every week
They should be given no allocation for the upcoming derby. The police and SAG would give full backing if this decision was made.
That game is going to be a real recipe for disaster no matter what the score.
Celtic were right to hold their ground and force the GB to accept the T&Cs and security measures in their section but they have got this totally wrong.
So throw some names in there James. You were quick to champion Tisdale and Nancy having done your due diligence, so do you want for our next manager and what are your criteria?
Personally I would go for Robbie Keane – he has a track record of success and understands the game here in Scotland. But you would say no because of his employment choices. And please don’t say Knutsen, he ain’t leaving Bodo for anyone.
The Motherwell manager is maybe being shown up now for having limited options of how to play with the squad he has – however Rodgers, whom you champion as an Elite Manager seemed incapable of having much tactical variation with a much more impressive squad of players at his disposal. So Askou is deserving of consideration (but with a Jimmy Thiel warning attached).
In seems clear to me that our footballing department has been allowed by too many people to operate in a bubble of complacent mediocrity. Responsibility for this would reside with the day to day management within the department (and any and all of those folks should be fired). Accountability rests with board level management and they also need to be held to account.