‘It was awful’… Amanda Staveley shares what she hated when she first joined Newcastle United

Add as preferred source on Google

Newcastle United co-owner Amanda Staveley has now shared what she absolutely hated about the club when the takeover first went through.

Newcastle have seemingly gone from strength to strength since the new owners came in, but it certainly wasn’t an easy ride for them and there was a lot of work to do both on and off the pitch.

Speaking to The Athletic, Staveley claimed that the club’s training ground was an absolute mess when they arrived and that it was one of the first things they knew they had to improve.

Newcastle’s training ground was a ‘bug-bear’ for Staveley

Under Mike Ashley Newcastle’s training ground was a very sorry sight and it’s a wonder they managed to attract a decent calibre of players with the facilities they were offering.

Everyone can remember the iconic pictures of players having to use bins filled with ice water for their recover instead of the cryotherapy chambers that all the best clubs seem to have.

Things were a complete mess and Staveley knew that this was one of the first things they would have to improve if they were going to have any hope of staying in the Premier League let alone being successful.

Since then, the new owners have invested upwards of £10m into upgrading the training ground while continuing a search for a new state of the art facility to be built in the near future.

On the training ground, Staveley said: “When we took over, I think we all assumed the right solution would be to put everyone together. But what I’ve learned is to bring in the best people and help them work out what’s needed.

“We want to provide the best environment and facilities for both teams, whether that’s under the same roof or with separate training grounds.

“The men’s team now have a fantastic training ground, which had to happen because we couldn’t have attracted elite athletes to come to Newcastle if we hadn’t drastically improved. It was one of my real bug-bears when we took over. It was awful.”

Newcastle are heading in the right direction

Since the new owners came into play there’s very little at the club that actually hasn’t been improved which are hugely positive signs for the long-term future if this is what they can do in just over two years.

While things may have appeared to have taken a step back on the pitch with Champions League looking out of their reach, it’s all just part of the process and trying to reach their long-term ambitions.

Nobody truly believed that Newcastle would get into the top four and then stay there forever, even the biggest teams in the world have years where they struggle, but they certainly want to be in and around the conversation.

For Newcastle fans it’s very exciting listening to the way Staveley and her husband Mehrdad Ghodoussi speak on the club and what they think they can achieve in the not too distant future.