Amanda Staveley admits Newcastle United's new co-owners have cast an "envious" glance at some of their Premier League rivals when it comes to training facilities. In recent times the likes of Leicester City and Liverpool have presented new training grounds to their fanbases.
And a look at Manchester City's Etihad Campus shows that Newcastle have some distance to go when it comes to being spoken about in the same breath as some of the top division's bigger clubs. Staveley expects this to change in the fullness of time.
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Staveley, speaking at the Financial Times' Live event, said: "The Reuben brothers and Jamie have been huge investors in the city of Newcastle and we have worked with them a long time, for many years, and we trust each other, we have huge respect for the whole family.
"The wonderful thing about this is bringing his excellency Yasir over. We all want the best for the club and that is to grow and help us develop.
"What that means is a new training ground, an Academy, I am passionate to get the women's football really moved back into the heart of the club. We have also had other facilities go up at other football clubs so we have looked at other clubs' facilities quite enviously."
Staveley, who is expected to unveil Dan Ashworth as the club's new technical director later this year, also spoke of plans to improve Newcastle's Academy set-up, and the improvements needed to bring in the best youngsters in the North-East.
Staveley said: "Obviously, there has been very little investment into Newcastle and we desperately need that. The only way you can do it is grow everything in terms, especially at the Academy level.
"That is a key area for us and we want to see more young players coming through. We have a great catchment area, we adore the city and we want to attract lots of young people to come, to do that we need the best training facilities we can develop.
"That's not just in terms of capital investment that is in terms of human investment. I think we want to be good employers and want to nurture all of our players and staff, we don't know all the answers but we have learned to be good listeners".
