ROTTERDAM, NETHERLANDS - NOVEMBER 27: Celtic head of football operations Paul Tisdale during a UEFA Europa League 2025/26 League Phase MD5 match between Feyenoord and Celtic at De Kuip, on November 27, 2025, in Rotterdam, Netherlands. (Photo by Craig Williamson/SNS Group via Getty Images)
After 14 months lurking in the shadows at Celtic Paul Tisdale is now front and centre.
It only lasted about five seconds but the clip of a sleeping Doctor Football by Sky Sports during the defeat from Hearts was telling.
It confirmed all of the worst suspicions of those putting together the jigsaw of what has been going wrong inside Celtic Park this year.
Tisdale is Celtic’s Michael Beale.
Someone of low ability and achievement but burning with misplaced ambition.
Tisdale thinks that he is the biggest unknown talent in football.
So much so that the self titled himself Doctor Football as he embarked on a You Tube campaign to get a place inside the growing analytics industry.
The Board has put all their trust in the self-styled ‘Football Doctor’ to get the right manager in & the right players signed in January.
They blamed all Celtic’s ills on Rodgers & believe this man can put it right.
He is their final throw of the dice.
— A Celtic State Of Mind (ACSOM) (@ACSOMPOD) December 7, 2025
No one in England would touch Doctor Football.
DOCTOR EXETER
Twelve years managing Exeter City said it all. He knows how to survive at a club where survival is the ambition. Gary Caldwell is currently doing a better job at the same club.
A few contacts got Tisdale brief consultancies at clubs, none of them were wowed by his brilliance, none offered him a full time job.
Somehow contact was made with Dermot Desmond. The Celtic shareholder was intrigued by all of the new fangled stuff, the prospect of maintaining domestic success with less of a spend at Celtic.
Brendan Rodgers was convinced to go with it over the summer 2024 transfer window.
Once in the door Tisdale shamelessly started to empire build.
SERIAL MEDIOCRITY
Everything already in place was trashed. Tisdale’s bespoke version of Jamestown Analytics was the way forward. A guy that managed Exeter for 12 years followed by disastrous and shirt lived spells managing Stevenage and Bristol Rovers.
Rodgers saw the warning signs but it was too late.
There was no shortage of hostility to the Irishman inside Celtic, in Tisdale there was an alternative way of doing things. Cheaper. Rodgers’ salary was a deep concern for the bean-counters appointed by Chairman Lawwell. Not that Chris McKay was averse to a deeply bloated package of salary and perks.
Now Doctor Football is fully in control. He is so excited that he had a power nap during the home defeat from Hearts.
Every Celtic fan owes the Sky Sports cameraman a huge favour. What a service he carried out.
DOOMSDAY RECRUITMENT
The squad on the park was assembled by Tisdale. Michael Nicholson loved it, summer 2024 produced a profit. In summer 2025 the profit was huge with the squad robbed pf Nicolas Kuhn and Adam Idah. Nicholson just failed to add Daizen Maeda. But that is his priority in January.
Unfortunately being knocked out of the Champions League by Kairat Almaty and Not Another Penny will wipe out the expected profit. The Adidas Account Manager won’t be getting any bonus this season. The Corporation Tax payment to HMRC will be seriously down.
As the players fumbled to perform on the park Tisdale’s choice of manager turned to his magnetic tactics board.
Callum McGregor wasn’t the only person wincing. Four days earlier it was so different under Martin O’Neill.
Celtic are now in need of massive leadership.
Yesterday Chairman Lawwell was posted missing. CEO Nicholson is chilling out after his four minute grilling with Gerry McCulloch following an uncomfortable day trip to Lennoxtown.
Celtic’s season is on the brink. Supporters can see it.
If Tisdale is given a free hand to recruit in January while Nicholson sells Reo Hatate and Daizen Maeda the outcome could be more horrific than supporters fear.
He’s been involved in English lower league stuff for most of his career,is that our market now because that’s the only way it makes any sense.they are lowering expectation at every turn.we all heard little Desmond with his views on European football for Celtic going forward
— finny (@finnymac67) December 7, 2025
Dr Football has to go. He should have gone a long time ago, heard he was a friend of a friend of Desmond’s ?
— CEL TIA (@CELTIA16) December 7, 2025
That celtic dugout carries no authority. Nancy sitting on that tactics board flanked with ampadu who looks like a jakey and gavin Strachan on that laptop. Players wont respect them, opposition wont and the media certainly wont. So out of his depth. Worst celtic dugout since lou macari and Ashley grimes.
The whole lot of them have to go other than player sales and season tickets everything else they will be down and maybe ppl should stop buying tickets also
My season ticket will stop at the end of this season. After 63 years I have had enough. This board is shameful, disrespectful, incompetent and harmful The club is dying on its feet and it will not be long until disaster hits. The disease needs to be cut out now before it spreads further and completely kills the club.
The only thing that will change my mind is to get rid of the board and Desmond. The board have no respect, just contempt for the fans, who have become the cash cow. Run by Tories for profit. Celtic have drifted far from the original concept at its origin and it is only the fans who keep it alive.
Everybody seems to be going mad about a poor performance from a poor team. The truth is we are a poor team and MON and SM got away with it over their short spell in charge. This was caused by the board selling players off and not replacing them with like for like and then bringing in players who were not good enough in desperation. Was it the recruitment team or manager who low balled to the point we were laughed at ? Was it the recruitment team who sold our key players to keep the bank balance looking good ? They’re not the best or they wouldn’t have put forward some of the dross we’ve brought in, but if you only have a £1 you can only go to the pound shop. Sack the board, fucking liars, it’s time to turn up the heat by boycotting games and picketing retail outlets. This should be the only game in town for Celtic fans, not screaming at the new managers drafts board.
Wee jock I also blame the board for the players we are stuck with,but how come hearts twice now,and sevco a few times last season beat us ,and we’ve been struggling to break teams down this season, surely our poor players we’re left with must be better than hearts ,or sevcos dross not to mention the other ten teams we massively overspend,how did this same bunch of poor players we’re left with,how did they beat feyenoord,is it tactics,managerial nous or what.
Tisdale was the cheap option for money grabbing desmond, Nancy was the cheap offering he gave to desmond,who loves a cheap bargain,an Exeter city manager now runs the football club,the old tight fisted pals act , liewell, desmond and now tisdale and Nancy,this season could seriously unravel,but com next year’s time to buy STs they’ll all be snapped up no matter what shite we put out on the park, money is the only thing this board understands and the money only goes one way.ive not got a good vibe about this season,have we got our own Pedro or John Barnes 2, magnetic tactics board for professional players who have won more than Nancy ever will,that board is for kids under 12 football at least Strachan has a laptop for his tactics or lack of.
Have you ever watched the tape of jock stein back in the sixties using magnets on a board to explain tactics to the team. Give the man a chance .
No i haven’t watched the tape of Jock Stein using magnets on a board , come to think of it i can’t remember seeing it in scotland , england or elsewhere in top level football , that said , football has come a long way since the days of JS and is no way comparable to todays
you see substitutes being shown diagrams from sheets of paper in a lot of games this is nothing new.
bertie basset, if you put the Lisbon Lions managed by Jock Stein on the park today, they would repeat the success they had in the sixties. That is the beauty of the game. Jock stein is immortal because nobody coud beat him. Lest We Forget!
Your correct about Strachan how many times has he looked at that lap top and watched us fail to deal with crosses in the box ?.
Another ponce chancer who should be dragged out by the scruff of the neck
Tisdale is a close friend of Gavin Strachan. The Strachans introduced Tisdale to Dermot Desmond at a Strachan Family Wedding. Dermot Desmond who offered WGS the Celtic Managers Job in the Guinness Tent at Cheltenham ( WGS signed his 32 year old Son in Law for Celtic on a 4 year contract) , immediately offered Tisdale the opportunity to join the Gravy Train alongside The Strachans. Jobs for the Bhoys! Ability, Background, Experience, Skillset doesn’t matter. ( why do you think Mute Mike is a £800k CEO?)
What an utter SHAMBLES…
Surely The Witch Doctor doesn’t survive this sleeping episode on Sunday….
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
I thought the ”doctor” patter was some in joke ripping the pish out of this ”geeez” – the fact it’s true should mean he will need a doctor to sow up his severely toed bawz if he has the brass can to walk down glesga looking like an arrogant little englander bawhum.