Celtic’s new Head of Football Operations, Paul Tisdale, has explained why he didn’t have any scouts for 11 of his 12 years at Exeter City.

The 51-year-old transformed the side during a lengthy spell in the dugout at St. James’ Park.

Tisdale was heavily involved in countless aspects of the club, from finances to tactics and signing players.

He recently explained that, when he was at the helm, Exeter was a ‘cash-flow’ club and that there would be a regularly high turnover of players each season.

Due to this, one would expect Tisdale to have a hefty recruitment team, but he soon realised he didn’t need one and took a rather distinct stance on things.

“After my first year [at Exeter], we got rid of all the scouting,” he said (Business of Sport Podcast Ep. 36).

“We had no scouts for 11 years.

“I worked out pretty quickly that it was a waste of energy.”

Instead of a recruitment team presenting to him several players, Tisdale and his sporting director at Exeter honed potential signings each season to a list of around 20 players, completely based on circumstances such as age, positional ability, and, surprisingly, whether they had any family connections or had ever stayed in Exeter.

Data and analytics hadn’t really taken hold in football at this point in the early 2010s, showing how much of a shrewd, forward-thinking, and perhaps wise move this was from Tisdale.

He clearly has a discrete way of working, and his over a decade at Exeter, working under a tight budget, combined with consultancy roles at Fulham and Crystal Palace, will only serve him well as he kickstarts life in Glasgow’s east end.