.....no more.

According to Ronnie:

Newcastle United have abandoned their training complex at Chester-le-Street's Riverside and switched to Woolsington for the start of the new season.

And it's just the news that the United players want to hear.

For while United have been well received at the Riverside and the hospitality could not have been better, the facilities are not what you would expect for a Premiership team.

Indeed, Rob Lee has criticised United's poor training facilities and it seems his words have now been taken on board.

And while Bobby Robson is not one for excuses, he cited the fact that United were hardly able to train outside as they prepared for their game at The Valley in February because of the snow and ice as one of the reasons for the horror show in the defeat by Charlton Athletic.

United own the land at Woolsington Hall and Park near Newcastle Airport and they have had planning permission for a couple of years now. But plans to develop a football academy and a centre of excellence have been switched to Walkergate in the east end of the city.

However, Woolsington does have six football pitches - and this is all Robson wants at the moment.

A United source said today: "It's full steam ahead for us to train at Woolsington next season."

Only the first-team squad will train at Woolsington next season. The youngsters under Academy director Alan Irvine will stay at Maiden Castle on the outskirts of Durham City.

So that's why they've aal got hooses in Darras Haal.

-- Anonymous, May 29, 2001

Answers

Any Point???

-- Anonymous, May 29, 2001

A step in the right direction. There should be no need for indoor facilities for the short term and perhaps they can get there arses in gear and sort that out in the near future. If they have the planning in place it is a matter of funding.

-- Anonymous, May 29, 2001

Perhaps someone can explain the great significance and logic of this move - other than saving some rent?

They have football pitches at The Riverside. What they don't have, and presumably won't have at Woolsington either, are indoor training facilities and all-weather pitches. Unless these are to be provided before they return, I'm not sure what the "great news" is supposed to be.

-- Anonymous, May 29, 2001

I think a fact-finding mission is called for Clarky. Get yersel doon there and take a look.

-- Anonymous, May 29, 2001

Really the only thing that comes from this move is that the club can now claim to train at their own training ground.

There are no announcements with regards to improving the facilities in terms of indoor training etc.

Who dealt with the state of the pitches at the Cricket Ground. Will it be that the club will have greater say in the preparation of decent pitches? I would have thought they would have that input at the Riverside but nothing would surprise me!

-- Anonymous, May 29, 2001

Sounds like the usual "crock" to me.
There isn't too much wrong with the pitches at The Riverside - only that they have an unreasonable tendency to get clarty and freeze in the winter. The usual remedy for these climatic conditions is to own an indoor pitch, plus one of the all-weather genus.
If my geography is even reasonably accurate, then I would expect Woolsington - which is about 20 miles north of CLS - would have very approximately the same climate! Of course, there could be the Gulf Stream effect to consider, not to mention those damned Sirroco winds.
Despair isn't all that funny is it?

-- Anonymous, May 29, 2001

Short of installing undersoil heating, I can't see how the pitches at Woolsington are going to be any less frozen than CLS, or what the ground staff can do about it. But I'm no expert on these things.

I'm with Clarky, don't see how going from insufficient indoor facilities to NO indoor facilities is an improvement. Or does Woolsington have something in place and I missed reading that? They need weight training facilities, showers, physio rooms, etc etc.

The upside is that this move may force the club to finally fork out the dough to build proper facilities. So there is some hope at last!

-- Anonymous, May 29, 2001

Clarky, if my geography is OK (probably almost as good as yours), Woolsington is a ball's kick away from Kingston Park. Regular readers of the reserves reports (as well as your good self having been there in person) will know that there is nothing like a Gulf Stream (unless that's what FS flies around in these days) in those parts.

I'm hoping (well, it's better than despair) that they do indeed have plans to build extra facilities up there - badgers notwithstanding.

-- Anonymous, May 29, 2001

Does anyone else think that most other "professional clubs" would have stumbled across - or just possibly brain-stormed - the following epoch-designating strategy:

Wait for it; here it is - build the necessary indoor and all-weather facilities, and then move to Woolsington from CLS, ie. after the new facilities have been completed.

You're impressed, I just know you are! THAT's what a grammar school education can do for you.

-- Anonymous, May 29, 2001

Of those who know the two sites in discussion here, which is the best site in terms of the facilities available?

The point about saving rent is a valid one only if the new facilities offer/will offer a decent level of facilities.

Is there any way in which we can find out what the Club officially have planning permission for? It may be just the use of the lamd as a training facility, taking such issues as traffic movements into account. Judging by the time they have held this 'planning permission'

I would say it is only an 'Outline Planning permission' and no detailed proposals have been put forward with regard to the anticipated infrastructure on site. In this respect the club will not be in a position to start building before the start of the season at least.

-- Anonymous, May 29, 2001

It's quite a radical step, actually. Now we are kissing goodbye to the treatment rooms at CLS our injury list will disappear overnight. The Tories did something like this with stopping the miners from striking didn't they....now, where did the coal industry go to?

-- Anonymous, May 29, 2001

It's obvious. They're only a kick in the backside off the airport, so they can get off on team building away days without needing to change out of training gear.

-- Anonymous, May 29, 2001

Good point, PB. There's also built-in weight training facilities at the airport......called 'luggage handlers'. Not sure if they've got shower facilities, but they do have medical facilites(Boots) and a cafeteria.

-- Anonymous, May 29, 2001

I'm sure that they will be adding all the necessary facilities...

...next Summer.

-- Anonymous, May 29, 2001

There will be a time limit on the planning permission and if they don't do it soon 'next summer' will be too late and they will have to start the process all over again.

Which is probably the only real outcome!

-- Anonymous, May 29, 2001

Looks like it's back to "jumpers for goal-posts" to me!!

-- Anonymous, May 29, 2001

Well I assume that YBR and his staff have checked this out and deem it an improvement, so surely it can't be bad news. Also the planning permission is in place and it is club land so hopefully they can put something together more in keeping with the club's status - make it into a vegetable patch for example. :-)

-- Anonymous, May 29, 2001

Oh yee of overwhelming faith, Jonno! ;-{)

-- Anonymous, May 29, 2001

It seems more sensible to go to Woolsington than Walker. Leeds' traing facility is out in the middle of nowhere which stops their kids getting into trouble. Surely we'll be better off keeping our lads away from the more boistrous element?

-- Anonymous, May 30, 2001

I saw a French documentary the other night on Fulham called the dream of Chairman Mo. Their training facilities were amazing, including an indoor heated swimming pool to aid recovery from training, matches. There were also some amazing community schemes in place, such as:

An 11-week full-time coaching course for unemplyed locals. At the end of the course the best coaches were kept on at Fulham, while the others were all able to find junior teams to coach.

Their academy provides free coaching for the loacl kids during the school holidays (about 15,000 of them per year!). All of the players at the club spend some time working with these kids, so these kids could get a lesson one day from Lee Clark, the next day from Louis Saha.

Night classes for kids struggling at school. They have football training after school, and then some course to help them with maths, reading, etc. Most of the exercises are based on football and Fulham in particular.

Obviously it helps when you've got a chairman who is loaded, but I couldn't help thinking that these things wouldn't cost that much to implement.

-- Anonymous, May 30, 2001

Even Crewe Alex have indoor facilities which include a dedicated keepers room with padded floors and video cameras for analysis of what they're doing wrong.

-- Anonymous, May 30, 2001

I've said before on here that Rushden & Diamonds have better facilities than Newcastle Currently have!

-- Anonymous, May 30, 2001

"An 11-week full-time coaching course for unemplyed locals" How many unemployed locals are ther in Fulham?

-- Anonymous, May 30, 2001

video cameras for analysis of what they're doing wrong.

Our lads would never have time to train - they'd be watching videos all day! :-)

-- Anonymous, May 30, 2001

At least it would keep them from getting injured.

-- Anonymous, May 30, 2001