I was interested to read the article on The Mag on Thursday morning by Joe Dixon, talking about the financing of a new Newcastle United training ground (‘Route now clear on financing new state of the art £200m Newcastle United training ground’).
One sentence in the article stood out in particular and that was: ‘The more I read about it all, about the part a state of the art new Newcastle United training ground can play in help building NUFC into a major power, the more I am convinced that this is indeed the case.’
Back in the day, Mike Ashley and his lackeys claimed that no potential new signing had been put off by the Newcastle United training facilities.
How exactly they knew this was never explained…
When transfer targets decided not to move to Ashley’s Newcastle United, were they sent a questionnaire asking them to say exactly why? Did they have to tick one or more boxes for things that had put them off – wages, working conditions, Lee Charnley, the FCB himself, Steve Bruce, the training ground?
When Mike Ashley’s NUFC training ground was ever mentioned, it often prompted great hilarity as people posted images of first team players enjoying the specialist hydrotherapy facilities when sitting in kiddies paddling pools. Plus of course the state of the art wheelie bins filled with ice and players climbing into them. Happy days!
The old Benwell training ground was very old school and then followed Newcastle United in recent decades having a nomadic existence of using facilities owned by others. Very much a place to turn up and train, then leave. Temporary improvements to the current training ground have been made and continue to be made, but in reality, this is only providing the bare necessity to get us by as we await the proper step forward.
It was old school for Newcastle United players and indeed those of pretty much all clubs, to train in the morning and then spend their afternoons in the bookies, playing snooker and so on. No doubt having a few pints as well in many cases.
The more I read though about other clubs and indeed about what a new state of the art Newcastle United training ground would bring, it is clearly a much needed huge leap forward.
A state of the art Newcastle United training ground would be a massive draw for new signings and existing players.
Clubs that have made major investments in these kind of facilities, create an environment and facilities where many players then spend much of the day there. It becomes both a social and professional setting, bonding with other players and using the facilities to relax and improve their physical and mental well being.
When starting from scratch, the very best hydrotherapy set-up and other positive facilities will be put in place.
If anybody thinks that there is no difference between that and the old wheelie bins filled with ice and kiddies paddling pools…
The club needs to continually move forward and improve, the new state of the art Newcastle United training ground will be a major building block in that happening.