Jens Berthel Askou has been heavily linked with the Celtic job and a finance expert has told 67 Hail Hail what they could expect to pay to prise him away from the Steelmen.
Celtic fans voted for Askou on TalkingPoints when they had to decide between him and Roberto Martinez.
The Motherwell boss has remained coy on the links to the Parkhead role, but what would the Hoops need to pay to get the 43-year-old to become Martin O’Neill’s long-term replacement?
- READ MORE: Analysing five Celtic players who could go to the next level under Jens Berthel Askou’s coaching
Would you take Jens Berthel Askou in the event that Martin O’Neill leaves Celtic in the summer?
‘Six-figure sum’ could be enough for Celtic to get Jens Berthel Askou
Finance expert Adam Williams has done a deep dive into what it would take for Celtic to poach Askou away from Motherwell, taking into account his contract and other details.
Due to having money in the bank, Williams told 67 Hail Hail that there would be no issue with paying up to bring the Dane to Glasgow.
He said: “Without seeing his contract, it’s impossible to say for sure how much compensation Celtic might have to pay for Askou. However, we can be certain that it won’t be prohibitive for Celtic.
“Motherwell’s payroll in 2024-25 was £5.7m. Clearly, Askou joined after that season, but the figures won’t have changed very significantly, so we can do some deduction based on that. Probably 80 per cent of that £5.7m figure can be attributed to the first team players and coaching staff. That would give them a football wage bill of around £4.5m. That would make the average salary somewhere around £150,000.
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“Conservatively, let’s say Askou is at the top end of the pay structure and earns £250,000 per year. He’s contracted until the summer of 2027. So the absolute maximum Celtic would pay in this hypothetical scenario is £250,000 to buy him out of his contract in the summer.
“In reality, however, the actual compensation will be different than simply the remaining value of his contract. Usually, there will be a pre-agreed sum. That can fluctuate depending on when and where he departs for, but you’d imagine that his representatives would have foreseen that he could be picked up by a ‘bigger’ club if he does well and factored that into the negotiations.
“Ultimately, I think we’re talking a low six-figure sum. Celtic had £67m in the bank at the last accounting date, so it would be chicken feed to prise him out of his Motherwell contract and give him a significant pay rise. It’s going to be 10 times cheaper than what it cost to get rid of Nancy.”
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