Askou joins Toulouse - what now for Motherwell?

Jens Berthel Askou has left Motherwell to become head coach of Toulouse.

The Dane led the Scottish Premiership club to a fourth-placed finish with victory at Hibernian last Saturday, securing European football for the Lanarkshire side.

The 43-year-old will replace Spaniard Carles Martinez Novell, whose three-year reign in charge of the 10th-placed Ligue 1 team will end at the conclusion of this season.

The Fir Park club agreed a compensation package with Toulouse for the departure of Askou, who says "grateful is the best word to describe" his 12 months at Motherwell.

"This past year has been an amazing journey," he adds. "The buy-in and support from players, staff, board members, volunteers and supporters have been invaluable for me to lead the development of the club.

"There have been so many special moments along the way, but the way the season ended with a hard-fought win at Easter Road, leaving the club in a position of chasing European football next season, couldn't have been written better.

"Special opportunities come rare in football. And you don't know when they present themselves. So sometimes you have to leave great things behind to create new ones no matter how hard it is."

Naturally, fear will start to overwhelm the Fir Park support in the wake of Askou's departure. Will it ever be this good again?

Points hauls exceeding 60 are not common for Motherwell. They also ended the season losing their fewest top-flight games since 1959 and with the second-best defensive record in their top-tier history.

You can also chuck a new club clean-sheet record on the pile. That was all achieved without restricting a bold and expansive attacking style of play, which Chris Sutton described as the best in the UK.

This time last year, there was anxiety among Motherwell fans when Michael Wimmer had jetted off home to Germany and never came back after securing the team's top-flight survival following Stuart Kettlewell's resignation, citing fan abuse.

The summer before, things turned toxic between the club and the fans over a failed takeover attempt from a former Netflix vice president. Yes, the past two years have been a wild ride.

There was worry within the support 12 months ago that the club would struggle to recruit another coach of the calibre of Wimmer, who had been interim boss at Stuttgart before a spell as manager at Austria Vienna.

The German was the first appointment from a refreshed Fir Park board, who then found Askou and he did what he did. Football has strange ways of surprising you.

Following the departure of out-of-contract Callum Slattery, many predict more will head for the exit and that this team will be picked apart - but the club are determined to avoid that.

Lukas Fadinger's contract extension means Motherwell's five most sellable assets - including Elijah Just, Elliot Watt, Tawanda Maswanhise and Emmanuel Longelo - are all essentially tied down until 2028 when you factor in club-held options to extend each of their deals.

Even the sales of a couple of those would mean a second successive summer of transformational income for a fan-owned club already on a sound financial footing.

Askou leaves big boots to fill after helping spike attendances and expectations, but it is still difficult to think of a recent time when Motherwell - and Scottish football in general - has been as inviting a proposition.

High player turnover is usually the theme of a summer at Fir Park, but a settled squad that have shown they can play in such a complex yet attractive manner is waiting for the new manager.

Planning is also under way to construct a new training complex and in July there are Conference League qualifiers to embrace for a team that looks like it could thrive in Europe.

However, the club will take their time following the same data-driven process that led them to Wimmer and Askou before the players return for pre-season.

Attempting to predict runners and riders for the vacancy would likely be a waste of time, given no Motherwell fan had uttered the names of Wimmer or Askou before their arrivals.

Do not be surprised if a third straight appointment has the same left-field vibe.