Exeter-bad-old-days-are -banished

It is not about how big the club is, it is about having a club I identify with. That is what I have here at Exeter City

Paul Tisdale banishes Exeter's bad old days

PAUL TISDALE, who is the Football League’s longest-serving manager, is asked why he has stayed so long at one of the game’s more quaint outposts, despite being courted by rivals.

This club has soul,” he says, and he is not making a musical reference to the wacky, ruinous days when Michael Jackson was once an honorary director at football’s other St James Park.

You can see exactly what Tisdale means at the club’s homely Cat & Fiddle Training Ground in the Devon countryside, where the gym doubles as the canteen.

Two volunteers provide the salads and jacket potatoes, players help with the washing up, while Steve Perryman, the former England and Tottenham star, collects the margarine tubs and water glasses – all part of being director of football at a club saved from extinction seven years ago by the supporters’ trust.



Tisdale has been here for those seven years, taking the City from their lowest ebb – seventh in the conference – to the heights of eighth in League One in 2011.

Even when they slipped back down to League Two a year later, as Tisdale began rebuilding the team, there was no thought of looking for a new manager.

They are talking of promotion again this season, although a 2-0 setback against Southend on Saturday leaves them just outside the play-off positions.

Only Arsene Wenger has survived longer than Tisdale, who explained afterwards what makes Exeter unique.

He said: “We are a club apart. My job is to work within our budget, develop players and try to win on a Saturday, and it very much goes in that order. With a lot of clubs it’s the other way around.

“When we finished eighth in League One, our highest-ever position, at the end of that season I told the board it was highly likely we would be relegated in the next couple of years with five or six players leaving for one reason or another.

“The things that affect your standing as a club are your geography, your supporter base, the cash you have available and facilities. We are a mid-League Two team who, if we have a good run and get the best out of our players, will go up to League One.

“If we do particularly well we will get to the top third of that league, but then we will come down again. That is the cycle unless the situation changesto surrender to just anyone laden with cash and promises.

There was a time when the boardroom roster included Jackson, illusionist David Blaine and the spoon-bending entertainer Uri Geller.

Julian Tagg, a trust member and now the club’s chief executive, said: “The ship was not far from sinking. One of the reasons that forced me into action was hearing on the radio someone say, ‘All Exeter need now is Coco the Clown for the full set’.

“As an Exeter person, that fires you up. I had no desire to get involved on the boardroom side of things, but I was born here and played for the club as a kid.

“People now believe in what is going on here. We want to be professional, but we have a lot of volunteers involved.

“They just walk in and out as though they own the place, and guess what? They do. That’s where the ethos of the club comes from.”

After the trust bought the club for £20,000 in 2006, they discovered the extent of the financial disaster facing them – £4.2 million in debt – as Exeter went into administration.

Former directors John Russell and Mike Lewis were convicted for fraudulent trading in 2007.

With the debts cleared, Exeter now keep the bank happy and when extra expenditure is needed – as it is on the floodlights – a special appeal is launched.

As for Tisdale, 40, a former midfielder and Team Bath coach, he buys into the Exeter project.

“I would not have stayed had I not wanted to,” he added.

“I’ve had an offer or two but didn’t even ask what the salary was because I didn’t want to know. It is not about how big the club is, it is about having a club I identify with.

“That is what I have here at Exeter City.”

The only way “the situation” will change is if some foreign tycoon takes a shine to the Grecians – and even then the 3,700 trust members, who own 63 per cent of the club, would have to agree.

After what happened 10 years ago, when Exeter City Supporters’ Trust was formed to help pay for a loan player, they are hardly likely to surrender to just anyone laden with cash


http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/443635/COMMENT-Paul-Tisdale-banishes-Exeter-s-bad-old-days

It's hard to disagree with any of that. In a lot of respects, I feel quite envious, tinged with sadness when I think about what the fcuk our club has become, but what could of been.

I still say we should of poached Tisdale when we had the chance.

Still can't stand the feckin East Deb'n slack-jawed red-necks though!

It must be pretty demoralising though as a fan, with a two-thirds up division 3 finish being the pinnacle of past glory and future ambition.

Czarcasm wrote:

It must be pretty demoralising though as a fan, with a two-thirds up division 3 finish being the pinnacle of past glory and future ambition.

brent and his jamboys will probably make Argyle the big fish in the small pond. porkie can't wait to boast on exeweb at the tired old sid james, while he has his shiny boxed in stadium. great if you never see more than low teens thousands turning up if and when the next waiters/sturrock works his magic. if we're lucky , the odd yeovil type year or two in the second tier is now our ceiling.
if you show no ambition, if you fail to inspire, none but the ever decreasing number of ageing/spotty aviva types will buy in.
the future is parochial, insular, village. the usual suspects get to play with the train set but the line to the bright lights is impassable. they like it that way.

depressing and not for me.

Czarcasm wrote:

It must be pretty demoralising though as a fan, with a two-thirds up division 3 finish being the pinnacle of past glory and future ambition.

Especially when it's bull shit, we finished second in 3 South once.

£150k a year with tenure? Of course he is happy to spout all that crap.

Demoralising is when you get beat away at Northwich Victoria on a freezing cold Tuesday Night, are half way down the Conference and the Gargs are chasing the playoffs in the Championship, after turning that shiite around it's hard to get worked up because, unlike you lot, the zenith of our achievements doesn't include winning the 3rd Division.

Lord Tisdale wrote:

Czarcasm wrote:

It must be pretty demoralising though as a fan, with a two-thirds up division 3 finish being the pinnacle of past glory and future ambition.

Especially when it's bull shit, we finished second in 3 South once.

£150k a year with tenure? Of course he is happy to spout all that crap.

Demoralising is when you get beat away at Northwich Victoria on a freezing cold Tuesday Night, are half way down the Conference and the Gargs are chasing the playoffs in the Championship, after turning that shiite around it's hard to get worked up because, unlike you lot, the zenith of our achievements doesn't include winning the 3rd Division.

Awwww bless.   

Czarcasm wrote:

It must be pretty demoralising though as a fan, with a two-thirds up division 3 finish being the pinnacle of past glory and future ambition.

We are practically the same, just a division higher.

'Remember when we nearly finished in the playoffs in the CCC'?

All clubs of Argyle's size have gone for it and got it.

All we seem to be happy with these days is focusing on building a stand smaller than Lincoln's.

just be grateful for club to follow