Paul Tisdale breaks his cover

Paul Tisdale was part of the Celtic delegation in Rotterdam last night.

The former Exeter boss was pictured in conversation with Chris McKay before the 3-1 victory over Feyenoord.

Tisdale was appointed as Head of Football Operations on 16 October 2024, since then there hasn’t been a word heard about his role.

Prior to taking up his Celtic role Tisdale was prolific on social media. A You Tube search reveals various extended interviews explaining how he operated during 12 years as Exeter manager.

Not so now. There hasn’t been a single interview between Tisdale and the Celtic media team shared with supporters.

MEDIA SILENCE

At the AGM last week Gerry McCulloch delivered an in-house masterpiece where Michael Nicholson and Peter Lawwell admitted that mistakes have been made. Typically no detail was offered. Perhaps the mistakes were failing to complete the sales of Daizen Maeda and Yang Hyun-jun.

Despite his EFL background Tisdale wasn’t brought to Celtic by Brendan Rodgers.

Somehow he managed to make contact with Dermot Desmond early in 2024. The businessman took a shine to the Power Points and presentations, enough to bring him in as a consultant to Celtic for the summer transfer window.

TRANSFER TALES

The summer 2024 signings were impressive. Eventually. None made it to pre-season training, not even Adam Idah or Paulo Bernardo. After being on loan those transfers should have been easily concluded.

In the final two days of the transfer window Arne Engels, Luke McCowan and Auston Trusty arrived. They could all have been signed much earlier and probably cheaper. Financed by the sale of Matt O’Riley. Doing things the Celtic Way.

In October 2024 Celtic announced:

In this new strategic role reporting to the Board, Paul will oversee the development and management of effective operations to support high-level football performance, including the identification and development of talent, in line with the club’s objective to develop Champions League players through our Academy and recruitment processes.

CEO Nicholson added:

We are delighted to appoint Paul as Head of Football Operations, and we are sure he will bring a new dimension to our work.

Talent identification and talent development, from our Academy through to our first team, is of fundamental importance to the club’s strategy, and Paul has tremendous expertise in these areas.

Developing Champions League players from the Academy through the Lowland League is one helluva task.

THE EXETER FACTOR

Once inside Celtic Tisdale set about empire building.

The methods that had been ignored by English clubs found receptive eyes and ears at Celtic.

It wasn’t long before the whispers went out about the lack of return for the money spent on Idah, Tusty and Engels. The messengers loved it.

Further undermining Rodgers was the decision to sell Kyogo Furuhashi without bothering to replace the striker.

The celebrations of progress in the Champions League by beating YB Bern had hardly died down when the Japanese striker was pictured arriving in France.

MANAGED DECLINE

Throughout the year tension was brewing. Rodgers had his twice weekly media audiences but behind the scenes he had lost control.

Plans were well underway for life post-Brendan. The summer transfer activity confirmed that.

Now Celtic are on the brink of appointing Wilfried Nancy as manager.

Is he capable of winning 12 points in next season’s Champions League group phase? Unlikely.

Nancy does have an assistant that once coached the Exeter City u-18 side. And that link with Kwame Ampadu appears to be the deciding factor in recruiting the next Celtic manager.

Rodgers is far from faultless but he has a track record for delivering success, he arrived at Celtic in 2016 at the age of 43.

Now a 48-year-old with no European management experience is set to take over as Celtic manager, based on the views of the self proclaimed Football Doctor.