It was less than eight months ago that half-a-dozen newspaper reporters were crammed into a small room at Fir Park trying to get a handle on Jens Berthel Askou.
You could easily have filled a notebook with the Dane’s musings on football and his stories from a journey in the game which included time spent in his homeland, England, the Faroe Islands, Sweden and the Czech Republic.
With Rangers due in town for the Premiership opener that Saturday, his relationship with Russell Martin was inevitably at the forefront of the conversation.
The pair had briefly played together at Norwich City and had kept in touch via text.
The Canaries’ connection made for some nice headlines. It helped fill in some of the blanks pertaining to the life and times of this somewhat mysterious man in our midst.
The narrative ahead of that game was inescapable: Martin had earned his opportunity at Rangers by taking Southampton into the Premier League after impressing with MK Dons and Swansea.
Jens Berthel Askou takes his high-flying Motherwell side to Celtic Park on Saturday
Berthel Askou had won trophies with HB Torshavn, but his two previous postings were as an assistant coach at both Sparta Prague (where he was fired) and FC Copenhagen. It was difficult to see what had led Motherwell to his door.
The moral of the story, then, is surely the danger of buying into the hype and self-promotion of certain high-profile individuals while marking down others purely because they and their work are unfamiliar.
By the end of that match, a 1-1 draw, Martin was throwing his players’ and their egos under the bus. His ruinous tenure lasted until early October.
In contrast, Berthel Askou was left to reflect on a display which had been dominant and brave. It set the tone for what was to follow.
No one now questions if the Dane is worthy of standing in a dug-out opposite more established names like a former Scotland international. He’s no longer an unknown quantity in his chosen field.
He increasingly looks like he’s the real deal. And, ahead of tomorrow’s trip to Celtic Park, there are many who believe he’d be a hand-in-glove fit for the Parkhead club next season.
The Dane’s ability to delivery style and substance from a standing start is certainly one in the eye for any of his contemporaries pleading for multiple transfer windows for their pet project to come to the boil.
When Motherwell put five goals past St Mirren without reply last month in what’s regarded as the best performance in a generation, eight of the 15 players involved had been at the club prior to the manager.
Berthel Askou takes in the Celtic-Stuttgart game alongside John Collins at Parkhead in February
Among those he inherited were 35-year-old Paul McGinn and 33-year-old Stephen O’Donnell, a pair of SPFL stalwarts who would have felt their best days were probably behind them.
The pair have epitomised the squad’s complete buy-in to Berthel Askou’s style and philosophy which sees them progress the ball up the field by sharply passing and moving.
With the squad augmented by new arrivals including Elliot Ward, Elijah Just and Ibrahim Said, this radical transformation was never going to be seamless. For it to work, there had to be no compromise.
Back in October, Motherwell scored twice at Parkhead yet were pegged back when Calum Ward passed the ball straight to Benjamin Nygren. They’d go on to lose the game 3-2.
In the Monday debrief, Berthel Askou showed the keeper’s error once on the screen in the meeting room but didn’t replay it. Instead, he showed the players a dozen examples of when their bravery on the ball had worked. He had their backs.
Although Motherwell lost at home to Falkirk a week later, there was a complete belief from the players in his methods.
In their next 20 Premiership matches, they’d taste defeat just once and even that was a controversial loss at Ibrox.
At one point, nine home games came and went without a single league goal being conceded. Who says you can’t be pleasing on the eye and miserly at the back?
The positive results aside, there’s been much to admire about the way Berthel Askou has carried himself. Disarmingly honest, there’s a wee bit of devilment in him which supporters love.
After Motherwell wiped the floor with Celtic in December, he name-checked Callum McGregor as the man his side had to mark out of the game to succeed. He also accused Rangers of being ‘cynical’ after the most recent 1-1 draw.
In the village which is Scottish football, that kind of thing tends to ruffle feathers. Really, why should it? It’s not show friends. It’s show business.
Berthel Askou has turned out to be one of the most exciting managers in Scottish football in years
The Dane has spoken openly of his admiration for the ongoing achievement of Bodo/Glimt.
While it’s unlikely they we’ll ever see Motherwell with one foot in the last eight of the Champions League, he sees no reason why the Fir Park outfit shouldn’t aspire to upset the natural order of things by building year on year, having a clear identity and focusing on development.
While last week’s defeat at Dens Park makes a title challenge extremely unlikely with nine games left, the fact it’s even a topic of conversation in mid-March is remarkable.
The Steelmen are still on course to reach 70 points this season. That would equal their record top-flight haul from 2013-14 when they finished second.
Come what may, though, this league campaign seems set to be recalled more fondly than any since they came back up 41 years ago. A 15-per-cent rise in attendances illustrates the degree to which the town has rallied behind the Dane and his swashbuckling side.
While everyone of the claret and amber persuasion would dearly love Berthel Askou to stay in the long-term and try to emulate the success of Kjetil Knutsen at Bodo/Glimt, rudimentary economics make that unlikely.
In an increasingly data-driven industry, he won’t be short on lucrative offers from elsewhere.
Former Aberdeen chief executive Keith Wyness is certain that the one which will appeal most will require no introduction..
‘I think he’s going to be the one that Celtic are going to go for,’ he said. ‘I think that’s pretty much nailed on.
‘Motherwell have probably played the best football in the league. The manager there has had a lot of kudos for that and I think he is the obvious choice because he is now aware of the SPFL, he understands it, he’s playing great football… he’s exactly what the Celtic fans would want to see in terms of football philosophy.’
With Hearts in such a commanding position at the top of the table, Celtic supporters could live without Berthel Askou delivering another result on Saturday to add to his impressive CV.
If those at the helm at Parkhead haven’t already sat up and taken notice, then they probably never will.
