PAUL TISDALE CELTIC MYSTERY MAN SPEAKS
- BY LIAM CARRIGAN
- Jun 5
- 4 min read
Updated: 18 hours ago
You might be surprised to hear that Celtic recently held a fan’s forum. I certainly was, as were about 95% of my Celtic supporting friends. Seems none of us got the memo on this one.
Thankfully though, I was able to get some info on what happened at this secretive meeting, which I will share with you today.
The man of the hour was Paul Tisdale, Celtic’s seldom seen “Head of Football Operations”. He gave a detailed presentation to the select few fans in attendance at this recent gathering
Before I begin, I just have to ask, why is this whole thing so secretive?
Since Tisdale joined Celtic, nobody outside the club seems to have much idea what his actual role entails. If this truly is a fan’s forum, why did so few fans know about it?
Why not just put it out on the club’s social media accounts or at least on Celtic TV. It would be nice to have something meaningful to watch now the season is over.
Anyway, let’s get into what Tisdale actually said.
Paul Tisdale: Celtic’s Head of Operations Offers Hope on Rodgers Future
Tisdale began by articulating what his role as Head of Football Operations covers.
He described his main job as “talent identification”. He began the role officially six months ago.
Tisdale elaborated by reflecting on his time with Exeter City. During his 12 years at St James Park (no not that one), he focused on improving the club’s recruitment strategy, the business cycle (developing players and selling them for a profit) and performance on the pitch.
One of his most quotable moments was on the topic of decision making at Celtic. He said that 100 sensible decisions will drive a club forward. One Hollywood decision could be disastrous.
Too bad somebody didn’t bother to give David Murray this little nugget of info back in the 90s, maybe Rangers wouldn’t have died!
Anyway, back on topic. Tisdale that one of the most attractive aspects about coming to Celtic was data analysis. He says that an integral part of his job is filtering out key elements of data and then applying them to the football club.
If you think this all sounds a bit like corporate double speak at this point, you’re not the only one. Up to this point, I wasn’t impressed either.
He did say however that “he hopes to work with Brendan Rodgers for a long time”.
Now this isn’t anything official, but I think we might interpret this as a sign that Rodgers is, at least, contemplating sticking around beyond his three-year contract.
Youth development and reforming Celtic’s academy structure is also high on Tisdale’s agenda. I’m sure most of you will join me in being “cautiously optimistic” to hear this.
Tisdale emphasized this is a massive collaborative effort. He was at pains to highlight the huge effort of “many good people working hard to look after players on and off the pitch.”
He added that the aim is to make the new Barrowfield facility the “best in class” that will funnel players into the first team squad as soon as possible.
Tisdale said that the new academy structure will be judged not by the best performing player, but how well our least performing player does.
In other words, raising the overall standard, not just increasing the number of elite level players we produce.
Lofty goals, but again not much substance as to how we get there.
Celtic will also, according to Tisdale, look to take full advantage of the new “cooperation agreement” which comes into force at the start of next season. This makes it a lot easier to loan promising players out to clubs in the Scottish Championship and League One.
Certainly, this would be a huge improvement on the current situation where the B-Team plays in the 5th tier of Scottish football.
Tisdale is also overseeing the women’s team operations but he said this is at an early stage.
Finally let’s look at perhaps the most important part of Tisdale’s remit: recruitment. Again, data plays a big part here. He said that data can be used not just for current squad needs, but also to plan 2-3 years ahead.
He said Celtic can’t have a scout in every country, so this is also where data can fill in the gaps.
At the moment, Tisdale and Brendan Rodgers have a weekly hourly meeting for forward planning, looking ahead to transfer windows etc.
He said Celtic’s club model is “possession based, attacking football”. Tisdale the club model forms 90% of the club’s strategy with about 5-10% being down to the manager.
In my own opinion, this makes sense. We’ve seen in recent times, a lot of the good work and players brought in by our previous manager Ange Postecoglou continuing to bear fruit to this day. So, continuity is crucial to a club like Celtic, regardless of who is in charge.
Overall, it certainly seems that Tisdale talks a good game, and I am willing to give him some time and the benefit of the doubt to see if he can deliver on it all.
I just wish the club would be a bit more up front about all this. These kinds of ambitions shouldn’t just be reserved for secretive meetings with a select few fans. This is the kind of statement of intent that should be front and center of Celtic’s PR and marketing going into the new season.
Tisdale is clearly ambitious, Celtic need to publicly embrace, celebrate and encourage that ambition, and meet it with the appropriate levels of support.
