Paul Tisdale comments may put to bed Exeter City, MK Dons conspiracy – View.

The final whistle blasted at Wembley Stadium on May 28, 2018, signaling the end of an era and the second installment in an unpleasant trilogy.

Exeter City have suffered their second League Two play-off final defeat in four years, losing 3-1 to Coventry City.

The Grecians would remain in the fourth division for another four seasons, and a dismal 4-0 defeat to Northampton in a fortunately behind-closed-doors final in 2020 was the pits.

That last whistle also marked the end of Paul Tisdale’s 12-year tenure at St James Park, during which the team rose from the Nationwide Conference to eighth place in League One before returning to League Two.

He had a two-year rolling contract that served as insurance against other teams interested in signing him.

In 2016, the Trust moved to terminate the 24-month contract and renegotiate new terms due to financial difficulties and declining performance on the pitch.

In June 2018, the Grecains announced the end of Tisdale’s 12 years as manager, as the 51-year-old refused to sign new contracts.

In a statement, the club stated that they had been discussing a’significantly better deal’ and that Tis had let the time for a decision pass without reaching an agreement, therefore they were going on with Matt Taylor being introduced as his replacement later that day.

Tisdale conspiracy theories in Exeter

Tisdale joined MK Dons on June 6th, bringing City’s home-grown captain Jordan Moore-Taylor with him. The centre defender had a release clause that allowed him to go for free if the team failed to earn promotion in the 2017/18 season.

“Paul was our number one choice from the beginning and, although it has taken some time to become real, it is certainly worth the wait,” then MK chairman Pete Winkleman stated in an eye-raising statement.

Grecians were outraged by the Moore-Taylor move, which was exacerbated by the fact that many had fallen out with Tisdale over claims of offensive gestures from the manager towards the away end in the 3-1 defeat at Stevenage in the penultimate game of the regular season that ended hopes of automatic promotion.

There were accusations of conspiracy, especially since Tisdale probably played a significant role in negotiating Moore-Taylor’s contract and the release clause.

Supporters claimed that Tisdale had known he was leaving for a long time and had planned the move to MK Dons before leaving St James Park.

Questionable tactics in the final fueled the fire, with claims that Tisdale deliberately lost the game in order to take Moore-Taylor with him to MK Dons for free and to spite the supporters who had served notice on his contract nearly two years earlier.

 

Tisdale says there were no ulterior intentions for Exeter’s withdrawal.

However, the former City manager maintains he was not set on quitting and was going all effort to get promoted, regardless of what anyone thought.

He told Business Of Sport: “People begin to think, ‘he’s never going to leave.'” I honestly couldn’t picture myself leaving, until a weird combination of events occurred, which I still can’t believe happened.

“In my mind, I was going to stay forever, but everyone eventually grows bored of each other, or circumstances change, and you go.

“People in Exeter still believe I lost the playoff final in order to join MK Dons.

“I’m trying to win at Wembley against Coventry, and all I can think about is winning.” Somehow it all breaks apart over the following several days, and [suddenly] I’m gone.”

What remains in the air is the’strange combination of circumstances’ to which he refers but does not elaborate. We’d never heard anything like this before, and it was regarded to be a straightforward case.

The long-serving City manager further denied that the MK Dons transfer was ever seriously considered, that it was agreed upon before to his departure, or that he was thinking about anything other than City.

“It’s like divorce.” He said, “I was contacted the other day about starting at MK Dons the following week. I had no intentions to visit MK Dons.

“I went to MK Dons, and the analogy was that you were getting divorced, which occurred. You’re hopelessly bewildered when your best friend, your agent, says, ‘I’ve found you another wife.’

“Four days later, you give a speech at your wedding about how much you adore your new bride! That’s the fact; that’s how it felt.

The Tisdale leaving left a sour taste, but there was no hatred.

While some in City circles still loathe Tisdale for how it all ended, that ‘gesture’ at Stevenage, and Moore-Taylor’s departure, it appears to be an honest evaluation of the facts at the time, and we can only take his word for it.

Of course, he was aware of JMT’s contract predicament; many other clubs would have been as well, but it’s time to put an end to any claims of a conspiracy and that he meticulously plotted City’s collapse before ensuring his own exit.

Regarding Winkleman’s ‘from the outset’ and ‘taken some time’ statements, the possibility of Tisdale being available was well known, and the process dragged on for over two years.

Of course, teams would have contacted him and posed the question, but if Tisdale claims nothing was in place and he did not plan to leave City, that must be accepted at its value.

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