Chris Sutton has been warning the Celtic board for months.
Even as early as June, Sutton appeared to be panicking that very little business of real quality was being conducted by the Hoops in preparation for their Champions League play-off tie.
The weeks have gone on over the summer and Sutton’s stress levels have only grown and grown. Now, his central emotions are downright anger and bafflement.
Celtic need at least four new signings in nine days before the transfer window shuts for good on September 1 until January, a desperate situation for the Scottish champions.
And Sutton has decided to call out Celtic’s head of football operations Paul Tisdale.
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Sutton questions role of Paul Tisdale at Celtic
Tisdale was appointed into his current role at Celtic in October last year having helped the club in the summer 2024 transfer window.
He’s officially overseen two windows – including this one – and both have been failures in terms of being unable to replace key stars who were sold for big money.
Sutton has questioned the ‘so-called football doctor’ amid fan fury over Celtic’s transfer window and has suggested the recruitment department has failed to find the right targets.
Writing in his Daily Record column, Sutton asked: “What’s happened to the so-called football doctor in all of this?
“Paul Tisdale came in last October so either the recruitment department has failed to find the replacements the team needs or the club failed to get the deals done. Something isn’t working.
“Rodgers’ comments about Hayato Inamura before the game were incredible. If he’s not up to the job then why was he signed – and by who?
“When you take out Jota and Tierney, it’s like Tisdale’s department are unearthing lots of hidden gems. The likes of Benjamin Nygren might come good, but that wasn’t an area of the pitch that needed attention anyway.
“I’ve got no doubt we’ll be told it’s tough to get players to come to Scotland, or you have to wait to get quality. They might say clubs are holding off selling until they bring in replacements. Yeah, that is how most of them operate – apart from Celtic.
“No, they are happy to flog their best assets without a contingency in place. A player wants to go? No problem, we’ll take the money. How about they get sold when it suits the club?
“The club would say it would have been a gamble not taking the money but it’s an even bigger risk when there’s £40million from the group stage at stake. All of it is utter nonsense.”
What did Michael Nicholson say upon Tisdale’s appointment?
Celtic’s CEO Michael Nicholson was confident that Tisdale would provide a ‘new dimension’ to Celtic’s recruitment strategy.
He also told fans that Tisdale was an expert in ‘talent identification’ – but almost one year on, Celtic supporters won’t be convinced at all.
Nicholson told Celtic’s official website: “We are delighted to appoint Paul as Head of Football Operations, and we are sure he will bring a new dimension to our work.
‘Talent identification and talent development, from our Academy through to our first team, is of fundamental importance to the club’s strategy, and Paul has tremendous expertise in these areas.’
“We are certain that he will bring great experience, energy and innovation to what we do, working alongside Brendan, our football manager, Chris McCart Head of Academy and our excellent wider football staff, to bring further development and success to the club.”
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