Newcastle United CEO Darren Eales has made it clear that the Magpies will be building a new training ground in the years ahead.
A move from Benton - which has been the home of United since the early noughties - is on the cards once the club decide exactly where they want to start building with Gosforth Park already mooted as a new destination. The long-term plan is to house the first-team, Academy and women's team all under the same roof.
And since Eales has arrived on the scene he has been impressed by the way Newcastle's owners have gone about their business. Eales said: "There have been so many building blocks they’ve already put in place, which is just incredible. There’s been so many great things that have happened.
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"The first thing I’d say, and a huge shout out to the owners coming in the way they did and obviously you’ve got the relegation fight at the time, and the January transfer window
"One of the things that has been impressive in all of our chaos, and stuff going on, is looking and saying ‘OK, we’ve got the training ground that’s there - how can we incrementally improve it?’.
"Yes, at some stage, with a long-term vision, clearly that’s an area we’re going to look at in terms of a new facility. "But still saying ‘what can we do now that can be done now that can help the first team?’."
Spearheaded by co-owner Amanda Staveley, the Magpies got planning permission from North Tyneside Council to improve the current location. And work is well under way to ensure the squad have everything they need to push on in the short-term.
Eales spoke of his admiration for Staveley and co, and their initial plans and said: "I think they did a great job very quickly in saying ‘OK, how can we do some little things like putting a hydro pool in?’.
"From a rehabilitation perspective, we’ve got the ability now to have that resource. To be able to create a little bit more space for our medical and sports science.
"All of those factors, it’s a way to provide incremental benefit to the team. Not thinking about ‘is that sunk cost if we go somewhere else?’ "But actually saying ‘no, we need to deliver to the first team’. "It’s not easy."
But the subject of a new training ground is not being swept under the carpet at Newcastle, Eales said: "We’ve got to get stuff done. I do think that is an area where we’ve found some incremental improvements.
"But clearly, on a long-term vision, the training ground is an area where if we’re going to get to where we want to get to, we’re going to need to have those facilities. It’s one of those factors you’re going to need to have in place."
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