Eddie Howe's role in £32m 'world-class' Bournemouth move as Newcastle United £200m investment approved by PIF

Following the March international break, Bournemouth’s players arrived at a new ‘world class performance centre’ at Canford Magna ahead of their FA Cup quarter-final at home to Manchester City on Sunday (4:30pm kick-off).

Newcastle United head coach Eddie Howe played a big role in the training ground plans at Bournemouth as they were approved during his time as Cherries boss in 2019. Howe left Bournemouth in 2020 having led the club from the bottom of League Two to the Premier League.

He became Newcastle head coach the following year and has since led the club from the bottom of the Premier League to the Champions League while also ending a 70-year wait for a domestic trophy.

AFC Bournemouth’s training ground officially opens

Bournemouth release a video on social media showing players arriving at the new state-of-the-art training complex which is reported to have cost around £32million. It includes 16 pitches, an indoor dome, medical, fitness, sports science and rehabilitation facilities, offices and a press conference theatre on a 57-acre site at Canford Magna. The Academy, first team and women’s teams will all be based on the site.

Eddie Howe’s key role in Bournemouth training ground as Newcastle United plans continue

Given his significance at Bournemouth during the time the training ground plans were approved, Howe played an important role behind the scenes.

But with Newcastle also planning on building a new ‘world-class’ training facility, he is not expecting to be as hands on this time around.

“I don’t think I will be [involved],” Howe said about Newcastle’s training ground plans. “That will be for other people to design. You have to remember the history of Bournemouth, I was all over everything!

“I don’t mean that as a negative, there just wasn’t the infrastructure that there is here. We had gone from League Two to the Premier League.

“This is a very different club and with decisions around the training ground and stadium, I will be very much in the background, hearing what is happening from the experts involved and, hopefully, looking on in awe at what we’re going to do.”

Newcastle United planning £200m training ground investment

Newcastle have already invested around £10million to upgrade the current training site at Darsley Park in 2022. While further upgrades are expected on the current site, the club’s medium to long-term plans are to move to a new purpose-built site elsewhere.

Two sites have already been shortlisted as options for the club. One location is around Newcastle Racecourse, which is owned by the Reuben Brothers. The other is north-west of the city towards Newcastle Airport.

Both options would provide ample space to build a state-of-the-art training complex along with good links to St James’ Park and the city centre. A budget of around £200million has been approved to build the complex with an official announcement set to be made by the club in due course.

The progressing training ground plans come amid the club’s stadium redevelopment plans, which have been ongoing for the past 18 months. A formal announcement regarding the future of St James’ Park is expected later this year.

According to Mail Online, Newcastle will partner with world-leading architects Populous to design the new training ground. Populous was behind the design of Real Madrid’s training complex which includes indoor and outdoor training facilities, a swimming pool, various function rooms and a 20,000-seater stadium.

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Newcastle’s training complex plans will include a small purpose-built stadium on-site similar to the one seen at Real Madrid.

Fortunately for Newcastle, investment into club infrastructure such as the training ground and stadium are not taken into account when it comes to Premier League Profitability and Sustainability Rules. And that gives majority owners PIF the first real opportunity to properly flex its financial muscles so to speak.

"I'd certainly like to think so,” Howe said when asked if PIF’s ambition can be made clear with investment into the infrastructure. “That's really important and I always say that when you're trying to build a football club upwards and forwards. The infrastructure is so important.

“The training ground is where the players live day to day. That environment is key. It can help you recruit players. It can help you keep players happy.

“We need world-class facilities if the club's ambitions are to be realised and, of course, that's interlinked to the stadium. Our stadium is fantastic now and I love playing there but if we are to improve, whether that means staying or leaving, whatever the outcome, trying to bring world-class facilities here will be a game-changer for us.”

Newcastle United CEO provides training ground update

The latest official update from Newcastle regarding the future of the club’s training ground came from chief executive officer Darren Eales earlier this month.

Eales said: “On training ground, the work is going on in the background. And again, it feels like every club I've been at, we did it at Tottenham, we did it at Atlanta. We're doing a lot of that work that you need to do in the background to be in position when we've identified the site that's appropriate to then go with full speed.

“We’re still making ongoing investments in the short term to our current [training ground] spot. We are looking to the medium term for a new training ground. That again speaks to [PIF’s] commitment.”

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