Training ground - is football coming home?
Lots of chat at the weekend about those magnificent Chairboys coming home to our beloved Marlow Road training ground, lots of building work going on at the site.
Youth set up will stay at Harlington which has been an unmitigated disaster by the way, lease, continuous building work, facility utterly unfit for purpose hence long list of previous owners/leaseholders.
Neil Peters, who looked after the ill-advised project has left and not been replaced.
First team squad will return hopefully for next season.
0
Comments
The problem with this is that Marlow Road is completely unfit for purpose as well.
Yes, it is a bit of an about turn given the slagging Marlow Road got earlier in the season hence building works.
Used to contain Legionnaire's disease in pipework under a previous regime.
I thought that the bigger issue was that there are only three pitches and the soil up there is not conducive to good/reliable training grounds..
So the club leadership have failed to keep hold of the successful manager after a rumoured fall-out indicating weakness in people management; and now apparently failed at the biggest off-the-field development so far indicating weakness in project management.
What are they good at?
Grist for the mill this.
Smarm.
Somebody raised the question regarding our return to Marlow Road at the Supporters Trust meeting which went unanswered, Harlington has been a toxic facility riddled with problems from the outset.
Nobody has a good word to say about it.
Bring them home.
If this happens it'll be absolutely mad. In a couple of months of already bizarre stuff happening.
This finally having a pot to p*** in isn't as much fun as I expected.
Is Elon Musk in charge of our infrastructure projects now?
When Rob was around, didn't he highlight the plot of land next to the new running track just off the A404? Why haven't we looked at just building a better first class facility and making Marlow Road a purpose built youth academy and set up there?
The pitches at Marlow Road are fundamentally unsuitable for football. Expect more ‘picked up a knock in training’ injuries if we go back there.
Haven’t we been spending millions on facilities and custom pitches at Harlington?
Was there something about rules in catchment area of Harlington for youth set-up in terms of category/ status?
The specific question regarding first team going back to Marlow Rd. was raised but not answered at the last Trust meeting.
Disappointed the Chair didn't address or return to the topic.
Does anyone have a link to the last meeting?
Harlington has been very challenging for players and staff alike in spite of significant investment.
Wouldn't think current training ground or stadium matches the vision.
No investment in the ground but then the management group don't own it.
I'd be surprised if they want to keep it.
DR said on the trust call that they are going to investing in a new pitch at AP in the summer. That won’t be cheap.
Piss up. Brewery.
We are leaving Harlington already? Didn’t we just spend a load of cash refurbing it and putting in a new pitch?
That is part of the agreement between Couhig/trust that the new owners have to honour however much it costs.
Adding points to their Hugo Boss cards
I'm no expert, but if we can put in a new pitch at AP - which will be a big undertaking as I seem to remember they would have to renovate or remove the undersoil heating, rather than just reseed it - surely it's possible to sort out the pitches at Marlow Road?
If Neil Peters was managing the Harlington Project it should be born in mind that he was a Couhig appointment!
We seem to be testing the Peter Principle across every part of the club.
Does anyone know what the actual issues with Harlington are?
Assume that would need planning consent and significant time for the necessary building work. If the club want to progress the Academy quickly this would significantly delay the project. It's a shame we couldn't get Bearwood.
Marlow Road is owned by well known property developers though!
True, but we we're only tenants at Harlington too - that doesn't seem to have affected the decision to invest in the site.
On a serious note, no matter how much you are worth no one invests the sort of money ML has invested in infrastructure etc at Harlington to walk away less than 12 months later.
Yes I suspect for many players & staff it is a ball ache to get to especially first thing in the morning given rush hour traffic in that part of the world, you will be vying for road space with all the London office workers, sales people and white van drivers, as well as a decent smattering of people heading to Heathrow for their hols etc.
Given the site is ICL's sports ground I am sure the original facilities/buildings are/were not in great condition, but anything is better than the port-a-cabin city we worked out of at Marlow Road, surely? At least the coaching team are not having to make blinds out of their old curtains now.
There have been hints that ML etc are looking to deliver a multi-site academy to increase the catchment area and ensure we dont miss out on local talent so perhaps that is what is going on at Marlow Road.
I suspect it is very much a case of watch those spaces and any other large site nearby but outside the Green Belt that comes up for sale.
Seems bizarre to go back to Marlow Road given everything said since and it being neither ideal nor owned by the club. Even as a stop gap it would surely need huge investment.
There will be a story to get told about that place at some stage and I'm not sure anyone involved will come out with reputation enhanced.
Too many of our players got injured on the Marlow Road training pitch so i would hate to see us using it again.
Look Doddsy our original target for coach has dropped out but he's left us a couple of players no-one has seen play and Ricey has pulled another couple off the internet, oh and that new training ground we kept going on about...weeeeelll, it looks like it's not much cop so we'll be back to Marlow. There's some good bistros there.
Given we are in such a good position, hopefully you can get these 108 players firing on all cylinders, get us automatic promotion and give some barnstorming insightful interviews along the way.
No, I've not got any chewing gum.
Why are you fidgeting and looking so nervous?
To be fair to Dodds, I'd be nervous in interviews after what happened to the last bloke. If Rice is happy to force out a club legend who'd finally got his dream job after two decades with us and got the team playing scintillating football that rocketed us up the table, then I'd imagine he'd happily sack Dodds for saying "um".
I still wonder if there is a deal to be done with new Reading owner (if that happens) to share Bearwood.