New Celtic head of football operations Paul Tisdale did without scouts for more than a decade at Exeter, describing them as a “waste of energy.”
The former Grecians boss spent 12 years at St James Park and for 11 of them, he didn’t employ any scouts to unearth new players for him to sign. Tisdale, the self described “football doctor,” has since moved into consultancy and was last week confirmed as the new head honcho for all things recruitment and performance at Celtic Park.
He was given free reign at Exeter to rebuild the club, but given the nature of life in the English lower leagues, a high turnover of players each summer was the norm and cashflow dictated much of the decision making when it come to shaping the squad. Rather than relying on scouting reports, Tisdale and his sporting director would compile a list of around 20 players each season, using criteria such as age, position, ability and whether they had any family or previous ties to the club or Exeter as a city.
“After my first year [at Exeter], we got rid of all the scouting,” he told the Business of Sport podcast. “We had no scouts for 11 years. I worked out pretty quickly that it was a waste of energy.”
A similar approach at a club the size of Celtic is surely impractical. Brendan Rodgers revealed he spent a lot of time with Tisdale over the summer prior to bringing in the likes of Arne Engels, Auston Trusty and Luke McCowan. The Celtic boss has previously never been shy about making his feelings known over the club’s way of recruiting, and now Tisdale is on board, he explained how he sees their relationship working.
“It just depends on what your take on it is,” said Rodgers. For me, it’s very much that I’m informed by data, but I wouldn’t be driven by it. We can get lots of information, lots of data on certain things now. Paul has said it was purely more on the actual performance of a player that would fit into our model and whether that player fits closely.
“He can bring the football analytical stuff to that, as well as overseeing that recruitment process. It’s definitely a big part of football now, but it’s how you use it which is important.
“I spent a good period of time with him here over the course of the summer, had long meetings. I spent a good period of time with him here over the course of the summer, had long meetings. When you bring in someone in that role and that remit, there is a specificness to it in terms of recruitment and analytics and whatnot.
“But it has to be compatible with my personality, with the philosophy of the club and how we want to work in the team. It fitted really well over the course of the summer, so I was very keen for us to progress that. We know where we’re at, in terms of what it is we want to do.”