Sheffield United confirm new training ground plan as Chris Wilder looks to the future
Chris Wilder, who has reinforced Sheffield United’s ambitions to become a category one academy, has hailed the club’s acquisition of a new training ground location, calling it “incredibly beneficial for the football club” moving forward. United announced yesterday that an agreement had been reached to purchase the Dore location of the HSBC Sports Club and construct a “state of the art” new home for their men’s squad.
After outgrowing their existing Shirecliffe training centre, which also houses their academy teams and is currently not big enough to satisfy the standards to graduate to a category one academy, United has been searching for a new location for the past three years. Shirecliffe will stay with United and be fully dedicated to their academy, with hopes to grow it and get the recognition that would enable them to retain onto players who would otherwise be vulnerable to being plucked by other elite programmes in the area.
Having lost star youngsters Will Lankshear and Kylan Midwood to Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City last season for a small portion of what they would have received if United had category one status, United are in the same catchment area as category-one clubs, including both Manchester sides, Liverpool, Everton, and Leeds United. The multimillion-pound stadium will also provide United a tangible legacy from playing three of the last five seasons in the Premier League and earning hundreds of millions of pounds in the process. That badge of pride will also assist them draw talent from the surrounding area.
Before the travel to Bournemouth this weekend, Wilder stated, “There’s an incredible amount of planning and work being down over numerous years regarding that.” “We want to be category one, but we can’t accommodate everyone on this site, so we’re not there yet. However, that is our goal, and I believe we may be a very successful category one football team. We’re actually generating players against all the odds, since everyone in the vicinity who is a cat one and has the skill and chance to steal our top players is swarming us, including Manchester United, Liverpool, Everton, Leeds, and City.
Thus, I consider it a huge blessing that players like Blaster and Brooks, who aspire to play for this football team, will remain. There has been excellent work done there to raise our standing in academy football, where we’re competing against the big boys, but we also want to provide the academy with the best chance to develop players, acquire players, and retain players.
We can’t just throw away all the hard work we’ve done by allowing ourselves to lose players to teams like Man City and Tottenham. Thus, in order to pursue our goal of being in the top category, we must expand the site for the first team. That has been going on for a while, and in the medium and long term, it will be very advantageous for the football team.”
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