‘I Wear A Silk Scarf, I Feel The Bollocks’ – Exeter City Boss Paul Tisdale Shares His Thoughts On Looking Stylish In The Dugout

Chris Wright

8th, January 2016

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Exeter City manager Paul Tisdale is oft cited as the most stylish man in the Football League, steadfastly eschewing the traditional tracksuit in favour of a gentleman’s cravat, a jaunty tweed blazer or a knowingly cocked pork pie hat in the dugout.

Interesting, while Tisdale prepares his matchday wardrobe for an FA Cup third round tie against Liverpool, the Daily Mail have unearthed a fantastic batch of quotes from the Grecians boss in which he reveals just why he’s so devoted to looking sharp.

Speaking in Living On The Volcano, a book about surviving a career as a football manager, Tisdale had this to say about his cavalier approach to dressing sharply on the touchlines.

I’m an oddity. With what I wear, how I speak, with the choices I’ve made. I’m an oddity in how I view my players. I really don’t mind the perception. It actually gives me an edge.

I see it as a positive. There’s nothing clever or tactical about it, but the game is so conditioned to distrust individuality it allows me to show how strong-willed I am in what I do.

He continues:

How do you make players feel they can beat anybody? That’s why I wore a cravat for six months.

I said to the players, “When I’m stood there, looking down the touchline twenty yards away, and the other manager’s got his tracksuit tucked into his socks, I’m one-nil up. How are you going to be one-nil up before you start?”

“How are you going to be feeling in that crappy tunnel? Well, the other team will be p***ed off coming out of their dressing room, because it is damp and tiny.

“They might be four inches taller than you, but you’ll stand alongside them and know the manager’s got his cravat on.

“I’ll go out early and be stood in that technical area, with my silk scarf, feeling the b******s. When you walk out, you’ll look at me, and know if I feel it, then you’ll feel the nuts too”.

The man ain’t fibbing either…

Soccer - npower Football League One - Exeter City v Sheffield United - St James' Park

A doff of the Ted Baker herringbone flat cap is definitely due.