Exeter manager Paul Tisdale reveals the secrets of his management… style tips from Ted Baker
Grecians boss is a brand ambassador for the fashion company
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CHIC Paul Tisdale has revealed the secret behind surviving ten years at Exeter – getting management tips from fashion brand Ted Baker.
The clothes-conscious gaffer, who once wore a cravat for six months to psyche out the opposition, has been moonlighting at the fashion house over the off-season.
He told SunSport: “I spend a lot of time at Ted Baker, I am an ambassador to the brand. I was there twice at their HQ this summer.
“Lots of my ideas for management have come from that business.
“I try to apply that back here. I don’t see myself as a League Two manager, I see myself as a manager of a small business with a certain ethos.
“Ninety five percent of it is the same – whether strategy or data or putting a team together.
“It just so happens that on a Saturday there is a different product at stake.
“We are trying to score more goals than the opposition and they are trying to sell shirts and shoes but 95 percent of the management is the same.”
In his decade on the touchline at St James Park he has sported pork pie hats, deer stalkers and silk scarves.
It’s all a bid to give his team the edge by projecting self belief and putting dreary tracksuit-bottom wearing bosses to shame.
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He said: “Match day is business. I don’t dress like that everyday.
“But match day is about confidence and stepping forward and having an edge, feeling you are on top of your game and having your A-game in place.”
But he will not reveal what is planned sartorially for the new season as he bids to get the Grecians promoted.
Exeter have won all their friendlies and Tisdale says his improved team should nail the missing consistency which saw last year’s promotion challenge fizzle out.
He said: “The goal is always to aim for promotion. It is always possible.”
After a decade at Exeter, Tisdale is the nation’s second longest serving manager – behind Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger.
But the boss who has been praised for his tactical astuteness as well as natty clothes shows no sign of wanting to leave the friendly fan-owned club, despite the challenges.
He said: “We do the best we can with very little investment. We are owned by the supporters who put every penny they have into it.
“But we have to produce our own cash to progress the club.
“It’s a real challenge needing strong discipline. It’s a very unusual club that I have put a lot of time and effort into.
“We are getting stronger and stronger with the academy.
“We develop players as good as anybody and for the resources we have I don’t think there is anywhere better. There is something exciting in seeing people flourish.”
Successes have included George Friend now at Middlesbrough, Dean Moxey who is with Bolton and Swansea’s Matt Grimes Swansea who stars for the England Under-21s.
Tisdale added: “I have been here ten years and every year there always seems to be another reason to push and make progress.
“I never say never but I do like it at Exeter. It seems to fit me.”