Not so long ago, Premier League clubs signed players without showing them the training base.

In 2002, Bolton's then-current coach Sam Allardyce wanted to sign Jay-Jay Okocha from PSG, showing him the current Reebok Stadium instead of his old base.. “I haven’t done my homework,” Okocha later said in an interview with the BBC. - “We didn’t have any time to relax - we changed our clothes in a portable trailer!

Everything is different now. Training base - this is a show of equalness to the club. This often becomes a major factor for newcomers, who, even before signing a contract, put on effective video tours with music and beautiful editing to show what kind of stench is eliminated from the mind..

One of the reasons why Florian Wirtz left Liverpool for a visit to the club's Kirkby base the day after the Champions League match at Enfield. The hostility towards the injured man became so strong that the decision came about on its own.

A similar story with the Belgian goalkeeper Senne Lammens. Having learned that the Manchester United base at Carrington has been modernized for? 50 million was one of the reasons for my transition. “I watch it online, but if I live it will be completely different,” he told Club Media. “Everything here is on the cutting edge, new and technologically advanced.”.

There are plenty of such episodes. Representatives of various clubs, such as The Athletic, say: today's players give training minds more respect, however, and often rob the club for it, as the base sees.

Young football players are especially worried - for them, the main reason is to predict the opening day at a prestigious university, where the leather club hopes to cope with the worst possible enemy..

This itself has given rise to a real “race to form” among the English top teams, which compete not only with each other on the field, but also with the one whose base looks more hostile to the upcoming stars.

Everything changed in the 1990s, when sports science began to rethink football. The very same cultural evils were encountered when approaching the training bases of English clubs.

How many of them - like the top teams - were quite pleasant, and then just sad. For example, Wimbledon and Crystal Pelas trained at the most famous parks in the world, training with joggers and dog handlers. And the old base of Liverpool - Melwood - lies between the residential quarter. The local bastards made speeches to the park in order to please their idols..

When Manchester United decided to deprive the historic Cliff base and build a new complex at Carrington, this became the beginning of their professional, isolated training centers. From that hour, the clubs will no longer speed up developments, getting ahead of their competitors.

The British drew great inspiration from the USA, where sports complexes have long been respected as a standard. The clubs received ideas for new bases from the NFL, NBA and university programs in American football..

Women in the United States are preparing to open a major giant - the 200-acre Atlanta National Training Center, which will become the main house of American football.. It is clear that it is necessary to change the approach before the preparation of the US team before the home championship in the light of the coming summer.

And in England it’s good to know what the threat of rebellion is. When Cristiano Ronaldo lost his job at United in 2022, he said the base in Carrington was “stuck in the past” and “hasn’t changed in the hours since he reached Real Madrid.”.

Looks like the club sensed it. Today's Carrington equipment includes, among other things, technology: interactive training screens, water treadmills, intelligent urinals, which ensure the level of hydration of the gravure.. There is a special room with height adjustment - one of the largest in professional sports - with exercise bikes and paddle machines. The medical block includes a treatment room overlooking the field, MRI, CT and full-body scanners. And for renovation - several swimming pools, updated saunas and steam rooms.

And they didn’t forget about the business: a bakery, a Formula 1 car simulator (Mason Mount’s favorite toy) and a lounge area with a bar and a fruit table for relaxation appeared at the base.

However, the new Carrington also has some nuances - for example, there is no space for the U-21 and U-18 teams, which is often accommodated in modular premises. We are already discussing the creation of a nearby project for the academy.

At the same time, the basic principles are more satisfied. But with all the updates, United is still leaving its main competitors behind. Aje across the road - on the Etihad - Manchester City campus, having long ago set the bar for everyone, having created a base that is respected as the gold standard of daily football.

I share the same philosophy as Liverpool, which in 2020 lost the legendary Melwood and moved to the new AXA Training Center in the Kirkby area - a Vartist project? 50 million. There are three full-sized fields, a gym, a swimming pool, a hydrotherapy complex, special areas for rehabilitation and comfortable offices for staff.

The cavy club is particularly popular among Gravians - from Salah to van Dijk and Jones.. It seems that she herself became a mistress, where the team was formed before the championship season 2024/25.

“There is nothing wrong with these football players,” said sports director Richard Hughes at Veresna. And it’s true that today’s struggle for the most urgent and most powerful base is as hot as the fight for the Premier League trophies.

Manchester United, Liverpool and City have long established themselves as leaders, followed by Arsenal and Chelsea. Tottenham, Aston Villa and Leicester actively rubbed shoulders with the prote at the stage, which is a great deal? 100 million for our new center, opening in 2021. Bournemouth recently presented a project for? 32 million, and Nottingham Forest and Newcastle have completely renewed their bases.

The amount is colossal, and the investment is reasonable. Investments in infrastructure, including in training complexes, are not covered by the profitability and steel development rules (PSR), so clubs can paint their brains without any restrictions. In addition, it seizes its main asset - the gravers - and extends their career.

The renovation and reconstruction of bases will need to take place more rapidly, and the modernization of stadiums, which are often dismantled from the city's urban oblivion and require difficult weather conditions. For example, Crystal Pelas became a new academy for? 20 million more in 19 months - and they are already called one of the largest in the region. And the reconstruction of the grandstand at the Selhurst Park stadium, despite all the odds, has practically not destroyed the place.

News from the Championship - another division of England - more clubs are investing in smaller renewal zones. The English Football Association is also upgrading its flagship center at St George's Park near Staffordshire, where England teams train.

On the basis of this fate, the FA has begun to renovate the complex. The first stage was the expansion of fields for gardening under the board and the creation of new zones using maidans.

The head coach of the men's team, Thomas Tuchel, asked to install a touch screen for tactical selections, while the mentor of the women's team, Sarina Wegman, gives the advantage to the projector and laser pointer.. The main conference room now has two options. In addition, a stationary giant screen appeared on the central field - the long-time dream of Wigman, who previously tried to rent equipment for an hour of training sessions.

The largest renovation at St George’s Park does not involve a manual process, but rather a restoration of gravel. Here they create a proper relaxation zone - with padel courts (the smells have already become a common element in many clubs), golf simulators, cafes and personal options, developed on the basis of the views of the football players themselves.

“We are working on everything to ensure that these spaces are as comfortable as possible for the residents,” general manager of the complex, Endi Saveri, told The Athletic..

He knows that the Football Association is long overdue for rebirth. It is estimated that close to 75% of Premier League clubs have renovated their bases since St George’s Park opened in 2012. After analyzing over 80 similar objects around the world, FA adopted its new development plan.

“The bar, before which the gravers sounded, has significantly risen,” says Saveri. “We need to create a new campus, and this means that we need to pay respect not only to training, but also to how football players spend their best time.”.

One of the key things to understand in the current design of sports centers is “flow”, so there is an uninterrupted flow. The idea is to allow workers and personnel to move smoothly from one area to another without disruption or chaos..

“We want the path of the gravel from the doors to the field to be direct and logical,” explains Seivery. — St George’s Park has not yet achieved this: football players sometimes have to cross surfaces before training. Ideally, the entire route would be on the same level."

Therefore, the head coach of the national team, Thomas Tuchel, asked that his team stay in the rooms at the first hotel on the territory of the base - which allows them to spend time on the field without stress.

On the club level, a similar approach has already been implemented in Aston Valley. In 2019, the club renovated its Bodymoor Heath complex, inhaled the American TCO Performance Center, and trained the Minnesota Vikings from the NFL..

At the guests' lobby there is a wall of glory with fortune telling about Willie's victory in the 1982 European Cup. Next - a private reception and a more compact, but well-thought-out layout: a well-developed sports science room, an analytical room and a gym.

The rehabilitation area has a panoramic view of the fields - it has been thoughtfully built so that injured players feel like they are part of the team, so they don’t have to train yet. At the exit to the dressing room there is a sign: “Victory begins here”.

And on the other side, the stars can be seen both in the hall and in the training fields, which are divided into the corridor of power.. It starts with a meeting room, a mini-auditorium, a hall for individual activities and video analysis.. Then there are the offices of analysts, selectors and administration, which lead to the office of the director of football operations Demian Vidagian, and at the very end - the office of head coach Unaya Emeria. There is a wet bath and a shower - a room that kindly shows the respect for the details.

The Aston Valley training complex has significant implications. Є around the meeting room, where to conduct private meetings or to download official photos of newcomers. In the other, there will be a swimming pool with adjustable depth and a cryochamber, which can be easily reached simply from the gym. Such thoughtful planning helps to combine all the key components that create unity. The guests feel comfortable and the staff is efficient.

And now the club is aware of the benefits of this modernization. “Football players on the site of Harvey Elliott and Jadon Sancho, who came this summer, realized that the most brilliant clubs with brilliant minds - Liverpool and Manchester United - they all sank to the elite center,” he said..

Amanda Cook, the founder of the Design Tonic studio, who worked on the interiors of the bases of Leeds, Liverpool, Arsenal and Nottingham Forest, redesigned: the head at the training center is “flow”, so that there is a harmonious space without distortion.

“We conduct workshops with staff to understand how spaces can naturally move from one zone to another,” explains Vaughn.. — The leather part is logically knitted, and the straightness of the gravel is inattentive. We are vikoristic in different ways covering subtexts and graphic elements to “lead” a person, as if we don’t mention anyone.”.

Detailing is invisible. Rearrangement of tables is of further importance. When Design Tonic was targeting the center of Leeds, the company created zoned, outdoor dining areas with the right acoustics to absorb spillage. Special coverings were laid at the dressing rooms, functional areas were furnished at the gym, and soft sofas and natural lighting were installed in the halls..

Tsikavo, that once the football staff themselves actively achieved the plan - during the administration of the past fates. “Coaches and other trainers are the key to successful design,” says Cook. “The stench understands best, as it is possible to procure the expanse, because they profit from it every day.”.

The expansion of the European Union is also of strategic importance. The Manchester United and Liverpool teams have guards over the graves located near the main entrance - so that the players are familiar with the known exposures still in danger. Willa really likes Phil Roscoe, and he helps newcomers adapt quickly. One of the most successful solutions was a digital book with videos from the skin department..

The reason why graves pay so much respect to hard-working minds is simple - they don’t want to spend most of their lives there. Training days become longer, and individual and team sessions become more frequent. We also want to make the base feel like another house: with comfortable areas for sleeping, full meals and small hotel rooms just on the territory.

The Spurs Lodge complex, which belongs to Tottenham, has a beautiful bedroom. Lighting is automatically adjusted according to the schedule of the day, the bed style is the same as at home.

And Rizik, that daily football bases are more likely to predict luxury resorts, rather than robotic places.

Showy butt - Leicester City. Their base at Sigreyva includes: a hotel, a golf course, a sports academy for greenkeepers (a specialist who is responsible for the supervision of sports lawns and fields). Vlasniki promised the club that after the triumph in the Premier League 2016, the team would steadily fight for the place among the Champion League. If today this object is a monument to wasted ambitions.

. “The lords must have been pampered, the stench lived like kings,” it seems the stench.

Similar respects of their time lunated and at the base of Aston Valley, aka Unai Emery, changed their approach. He insisted on placing an emphasis on work rather than manual tasks: he achieved the installation of floodlights for evening training and initiating the daily life of the hotel just on the territory of the complex. There will be 40 rooms for workers and staff - so they can stay overnight after late departures or before wound training.

Such solutions effectively help physically - but may also cause back pain. Since football players are actually locked into the base, especially during recent series, this can have a negative impact on psychology.

Make it a point to spend at least five years a day at the club centers (and even longer if you’re collecting). And despite all attempts to make the bases quiet, the most important thing is that the best solution is at home, instructing from loved ones.

Therefore, it is important to know the balance: which drivers can work comfortably and at the same time are not forced to work at the base, which is the ideal scenario. The clubs are reconciled - they themselves show the best results.

Over the past decade, respect for mentality and motivation has become as important as physical considerations. The stars were all fading on the walls of the training complexes, shouting to tell us why they had to go out onto the field.

At St George's Park, the English national football team has a sign before entering the lawn: " And Carrington, using the trophies of past rocks, was deprived of an empty row of police - for the future, Manchester United won.

“The people need to realize that they are making powerful history,” says the technical director who took part in the creation of several football bases.

Such details, of course, do not guarantee success - both United and Leicester are well aware of this. Alas, in the world, where skin friction can become a priority, great clubs do not have the right to waste every chance.

The Athletic.