New Celtic chief's Exeter City transfer claims continue to divide opinion | OneFootball

Paul Tisdale was renowned for his sensible management of Exeter City - until he gambled it all for a shot at glory one season.

You gotta know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em.

Football management and player trading is essentially just that; gambling.

You can never be quite sure if the next deal's going to work, if it's going to be a huge success or set you back a few paces.

Former long-serving Exeter City boss Paul Tisdale was pretty well versed in the art of the deal, bringing millions into the club that he dragged from the National League to their highest ever finish in League One and, finally, back down to League Two.

Few managers in the EFL can ever have been as business savvy or finance orientated as Tisdale was during his 12-year stay at St James Park.

He was perfect for Exeter and Exeter was perfect for him.

Since he left the club in 2018 he's been a bit lost in the footballing landscape, taking brief management stints here and there before finally finding his next long-term project in charge of football operations at Scottish giants Celtic.

Those who know him best, the Grecians faithful, will know that it's a good fit for Tisdale and that he's got a great chance of making a big success of it in the green half of Glasgow.

Sensible recruitment decisions, selling at the right time and building for the future are all key pillars of Tisdale's footballing ethos off the pitch.

But, as it seems with most things in life, there was one huge contradiction in that and it resulted in a costly relegation and 10 years in the EFL basement for City.

Following successive promotions out of the National League and League Two, City clung on to their League One status on the final day of the 2009/10 season thanks to a dramatic come-from-behind win over Huddersfield Town.

The club were at a crossroads, having solidified their position in the third tier after back-to-back promotions.

Contracts of several star players like future manager Matt Taylor and Ryan Harley, who scored a goal each in City's win against the Terriers, were due to expire at the end of the 2010/11 season.

Usually, under Tisdale's astute management, that would have meant cashing in the chips on the table and looking for the next potentially lucrative gamble.

But not this time. Tisdale risked it all and went for it in 2010/11.

Paul Tisdale's big Exeter City gamble

"We decided to keep the team together," Tisdale wrote in Coaches' Voice. "We wanted to try and build on the momentum of the second half of the previous campaign. The problem was that we had a large group of players ready to run their contracts down."

"We knew we had a great chance to do something special. Exeter had never finished in the top third of League One, and we had a chance of doing that."

The ambition was admirable and it was the kind of killer attitude that was alien to a club that was, in all honesty, more focused on survival than success.

It's the kind of thing other clubs do, clubs that get promoted. They gamble next season over the long-term prosperity of the enterprise.

It almost worked but, as we often see in football, the crows did come home to roost shortly after.

Exeter paid for short-term success

"That was the only year we made the decision to forego money from sales because we had a chance for a once-in-a-generation achievement," Tis continued, "It was a short-term decision that wasn’t typical of the way the club was run at any stage when I was there, but we decided to gamble.

"We carried on our run of form and had an incredible season. We did what no other Exeter team had done before and finished eighth in League One.

"We missed out on the playoffs by one point, and the next year [2011/12] we plummeted. A load of players left on free transfers.

"Even if we’d had the money to replace them, it would have been impossible to replace the understanding those players had, having played together for so long.

"We had a business model that we disregarded for that one season, and we paid for it. It took years to recover but to this day, I still maintain it was the right decision."

While Tisdale is satisfied with his decision, it's one that City fans were left ruing a decade later as they continued to unsuccessfully flirt with promotion out of League Two, though their prayers were finally answered in the 2021/22 season.

The club seems to have learned its lesson too. There's no gambling these days and everything is done in a considered, thoughtful manner.

We, the supporters and owners, will be here long after Gary Caldwell and his successor's successor, too.

Tisdale can't make same call at Celtic

In terms of Tisdale's new role of Head of Football Operations with the Bhoys it's hard to see his grand roll of the dice being repeated there.

There are far more checks and balances at a club the size of Celtic.

At Exeter Tisdale and Director of Football Steve Perryman were trusted with running everything on the football side from sales to selection. The whole caboodle.

Tisdale is excellent at the off-field stuff and, while he says he has no regrets over gambling everything at a shot at the League One play-offs and ending up with a frustrating decade in League Two, it really was the exception rather than the norm.

And, to his credit, the 51-year-old hung around to try and clean up the mess he made, though the promotion back to his personal pinnacle remained elusive when he finally left the club.

The reason this 2010/11 season is notable is because it is the exception. Tisdale is not a gambler, as probably shown by the result of his one big bet.

He usually treats his employer's cash as if it was his own and, assuming that continues, Celtic supporters should know they're in safe hands with Tis at the helm.