St George's Park - England's new Centre of Excellence

DenMan

Always wondered why England trained at Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal etc training facilities ahead of internationals. Turns out they never had a state of the art world centre of excellence....UNTIL NOW! It looks amazing!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19881116

grenache

World class facility. Now all they need to do is to start making love to the ball, instead of hoofing it.

GavRedKing

Excellent setup. Can only be good for the England international team having a dedicated base like that.

IvySlayer

Why build it 130 miles from Wembley?

DenMan

IvySlayer wrote: »

Why build it 130 miles from Wembley?

Maybe they wanted to have it in the Midlands (West)

Seaneh

IvySlayer wrote: »

Why build it 130 miles from Wembley?

Property prices, land availability, making it accessible from every part of the country and not just the south east... Probably a lot of reasons.

Lumbo

It's a poor mans Abbotstown :pac:

Guy:Incognito

They had Lillishall before. Presumablythis is the replacement? Why was that shut down years before this was built?

Seaneh

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

They had Lillishall before. Presumablythis is the replacement? Why was that shut down years before this was built?

The FA never owned Lillishall though.
And the facilities aren't really purpose built.

Jax Teller

Seaneh wrote: »

Property prices, land availability, making it accessible from every part of the country and not just the south east... Probably a lot of reasons.

They paid 2million for the site years ago . Imagine trying to buy 330 acres of land near London you'd be looking at a whole lot more than that .

GavRedKing

As mentioned, pretty central location and having it anywhere near London would send cost trough the roof.

Vurnon San Benito

A pretty phenomenal facility. The Altitude chamber, unreal!

Dempsey

the problem isnt facilities, its coaching and the attitude ingrained into the majority of kids underage. least now, they've no excuses when they blow up in and around tournaments

Jax Teller

They won't see benefits right away could take 10-20 years . First thing they need to do is get rid of Stuart Pearce .

The exact replica of Wembley's pitch is cool .

Mars Bar

Lumbo wrote: »

It's a poor mans Abbotstown :pac:

Speaking of which, Abbotstown will be getting it's own makeover for its centre of excellence.

Dempsey

Mars Bar wrote: »

Lumbo wrote: »

It's a poor mans Abbotstown :pac:

Speaking of which, Abbotstown will be getting it's own makeover for its centre of excellence.

yeh? probably a german flag going up the flagpole and a plaque on the wall reading 'merkel owns this' :P

mike65

The first thing they should do is make the best club youth coaches offers they can't turn down (and sack Stuart Pearce), the top U21 club sides play better than the England U21 side can.

Washington Irving

Dempsey wrote: »

yeh? probably a german flag going up the flagpole and a plaque on the wall reading 'merkel owns this' :P

If it helps us play more like the Germans I'm all for it

IncognitoMan

Well martin keown clearly can't tell his right from his left

_blank_

Hopefully the Ireland team can mop up a few decent cast offs from this.

DenMan

Des wrote: »

Hopefully the Ireland team can mop up a few decent cast offs from this.

That would be nice! Fingers crosses!

iregk

Jax Teller wrote: »

The exact replica of Wembley's pitch is cool .

I'm confused about this bit. Isn't the pitch the part of Wembley that everyone who has played there has moaned about saying how crap it was. Why recreate it?

The facility itself is top class, well done England. I think with something like this they will gradually change from a 'ave it' mentality in youngsters to ball possession and technique. The telling bit for me was Stuart Pearce at the end, and he was 100% right. It may take 2 decades, or 3 and if it does it will be worth it. Lets fast foward 2 years shall we never mind 2 decades. England go out of the WC after a non Spain/Germany like performance and all the rag tops will scream: "WASTED! 100n FOR NOTHING!!!!"

Jax Teller

iregk wrote: »

I'm confused about this bit. Isn't the pitch the part of Wembley that everyone who has played there has moaned about saying how crap it was. Why recreate it?

They changed the pitch a couple of years back and ever since then it seems to be grand .

Seaneh

iregk wrote: »

I'm confused about this bit. Isn't the pitch the part of Wembley that everyone who has played there has moaned about saying how crap it was. Why recreate it?

The relaid it about 2 years after it open and it's been much better since.
The original turf had a type of grass that wasn't suitable, the high stands meant it wasn't getting enough sunlight so the grass was ****. They used a different few grasses the turn has a sort of fabric running through it which helps the roots bind and the grass doesn't come up as easy.

Your Airbag

It didn't mention anything about wifi. Waste of money.

Mitch Connor

While I don't see it being a real issue being 2 hours away from Wembley - I am confused as to the point really, unles the campus isn't fully open yet.

Whatever day it was opened, wednesday i think, they travelled to their hotel in london that night, a 2 hour drive. Apparently yesterday they were training in London.

Unless there is a hotel on site, for the players to stay there during international week and then travel on the Thursday night or Friday morning, how much time will they actually get at the facility? A couple of days every month or two or three?

I presume the underage sides will spend a lot more time there.

Seems a waste if they are not going to use it more than they have this week.