Celtic look set to appoint Paul Tisdale to a senior footballing operations role at the club, as Brendan Rodgers looks to reshape things behind the scenes.
Last night, reports emerged that the Hoops want to bring the ‘football doctor’ to Parkhead to oversee a review of departments such as recruitment, data, and player and coach development.
The 51-year-old is widely known for his 12-year spell at Exeter City. He rebuilt the club and helped it achieve its highest-ever league finish.
Tisdale also gave now Aston Villa and England star Ollie Watkins his big break while with The Grecians.
He currently works as a self-employed consultant. “I’m currently into a period where I am doing a bit of a lot of things,” Tisdale recently said (Scouted Podcast via MailSport).
“[I’m] waiting for one thing really to take off. [It’s] keeping me busy and I am self employed with my own business and really enjoying it.
“I work as what I call a football doctor. I go into football clubs and I try to find performance-improvement solutions using data and also my experience as a coach.
“I can translate very well from the boardroom to the pitch, and from the pitch to the boardroom, and also deliver CPD (continuous professional development) or coach mentoring.”
Perhaps Celtic could be the ‘thing’ that rejuvenates Tisdale.
Indeed, there are several parallels between the club’s current transfer model and how he worked recruitment at Exeter.
In an interview with WFi in 2021, Tisdale revealed how he signed players during his time at St. James’ Park.
“Good recruitment stems from knowing your environment, the personalities of your squad and ensuring that you optimise player potential to the maximum,” he said.
“For example, at Exeter, we had to compete against other clubs in our league with a smaller budget. Therefore, we had to get sufficiently good players at less of a price than our competitors in order to be competitive.
“That means that you need to make comprises and target players who have not yet reached their potential elsewhere or that you believe can play at a higher level than they currently are playing at.
“I believe that if you put a player into a healthy environment then you can change the application and perspective of a player.
“At Exeter, we knew exactly what we were as a club which helped create a healthy working environment. We knew that it was a priority for us to develop our own players from the academy, sign talent on a comprise as I’ve discussed or older professionals at the latter end of their career to come in and set standards for the younger pros.”
There are coherent parallels between the recruitment Tisdale heeded at Exeter and how Celtic looks to sign players.
The former MK Dons and Bristol Rovers boss has a sound reputation within the game, and his services will undoubtedly be of use to the Scottish champions as they look to reshape their footballing department behind the scenes.
