Amanda Staveley discloses ‘terrible’ truth as Newcastle owner makes signings admission

Newcastle United signed Kieran Trippier and Bruno Guimaraes in the owners’ first transfer window, but the hierarchy long recognised that the training area needed modernising to attract others.
Amanda Staveley has claimed that Newcastle United would have been unable to attract ‘elite’ signings unless the club’s ‘terrible’ training facility was ‘drastically renovated’.

Newcastle has spent approximately £10 million upgrading the men’s current facility at Benton, and players now have access to a better canteen that has doubled in size, hydrotherapy and plunge pools, an improved gym, a modern 30-seat presentation room, a new lounge, an expanded physio room, and a larger dressing room, among other features. Eddie Howe stated that the ‘improved’ facility now’matches our goals’.

However, the owners have never hidden their long-term intention to develop a new cutting-edge training facility. Although Dan Ashworth stated that improving the club’s current infrastructure has been ‘our main area of focus’, the outgoing sporting director suggested in November that Newcastle would ‘look’ if there was an opportunity to acquire some land that would help the Magpies’move to the next level from a training environment’.

Newcastle’s owners have previously explored sites with the goal of building an all-encompassing facility that would unite the men’s, women’s, and academy teams together, but ‘everything is up for negotiation’.

 

 

“When we took over, I think we all assumed the right solution would be to put everyone together,” Staveley told the Athletic. “But what I’ve learnt is to bring in the greatest individuals and help them figure out what they need. We wish to provide the greatest environment and facilities for both teams, whether they train together or separately.

“The men’s team now has a superb training facility, which was necessary because we couldn’t have lured elite athletes to Newcastle unless we had substantially improved. It was one of my biggest pet peeves when we took over. It was terrible.

“It’s nice to see the men’s training ground now, but we don’t have much more space there, and things take time to create. We’re looking at a lot of our colleagues from various teams to see what environment will provide the best results.”