The facilities put Magpies’
FAILING TO INVEST NOW COULD COST NEWCASTLE DEAR
LEICESTER City have announced plans to build a £100million training complex – following in the footsteps of Bournemouth and a host of other Premier League teams who have moved to strengthen their bases.
The statement from the architects behind the Foxes’ planning application speaks of a clear brief from the club, with the desire to create the “best training centre in Europe” which will “attract the best talent” to the club. This is a sign of ambition. Meanwhile, at Newcastle United, improvements to United’s Benton Training Centre have taken place over the past few years – but they are nowhere near as extensive as previously promised.
Rafa Benitez has a desire to improve the facilities but it appears owner Mike Ashley does not.
The promise of similar ‘state-ofthe-art’ facilities to those proposed at Leicester were also heard by United fans in 2013.
Then it was Joe Kinnear as director of football leading the calls for change.
He said at the time: “We are delighted to now be announcing plans for a training complex which will rival any in Europe.”
The club backed Kinnear’s announcement with a statement of its own, confirming plans of a full refurbishment of the Benton HQ.
The statement promised “a stunning new state-of-the-art training complex” with a swimming pool, a hydrotherapy unit and a fitness pool which would see the club “occupy one of the finest training facilities of its kind in Europe”.
Plans were passed in October 2014 by the council and a date of May 2016 was set.
By 2015 things had not progressed. At a Fans Forum meeting it was suggested a poor showing in the league had determined the plans be put on a hold – but with the view they would get back on track.
Less than 12 months later, and ironically in the month the work was due to be completed, United were relegated to the Championship.
Now two years on, Benitez has been unable to make drastic improvements to the training ground.
In a recent interview with Guillem Balague, Benitez hinted there was not the budget to complete the overhaul that he envisages.
He explained: “We decided to change a little bit the training ground when we first arrived at Newcastle.
“It is not easy to change big things without big money, but to create a football atmosphere and some colour and some passion we put things like the canvas of St James’ Park in the manager’s room.” It would be easy to look at Leicester’s plans and argue they were Premier League champions just two years ago. Yet when United finished fifth in 2011/12 Leicester managed just a ninth-placed finish in the Championship. When Kinnear revealed his big ambition, the Foxes were still in the second tier. It is United’s lack of ambition which has allowed teams like Leicester to get ahead but even those on similar budgets – Burnley and Brighton – have far superior complexes. Burnley spent £10million on a new training ground while Brighton opened a facility costing £20m back in 2014. Other teams such as Bournemouth are following suit, the southcoast team pressing ahead with plans for a £10m training ground, while improvements are also