Your guide to Saints’ new Staplewood:

Adam Leitch’s guide to Staplewood’s most remarkable features ...

The pitches

  • Pitch one is an exact replica of the St Mary’s playing surface for the first team.
  • Pitch two contains a goalkeeping area and is the second pitch for the first team.
  • A full size synthetic pitch is covered to allow training in bad weather.
  • A grandstand allows views of two pitches used by the under-21s and under-18s, allowing them to experience a realistic macthday, including using their own changing facilities on game days.
  • A series of pitches, which vary in size, allow the youth teams from under-7s upward to train and play.
  • The site is designed so players make their way from the bottom of the facility to the top as they progress through the levels, creating an aspirational culture.

Sports Science

  • Specialises in injury prevention and treatment.
  • Cutting edge equipment and space, including doctor’s room.
  • Massage rooms in which music, lighting colour and smell are adjusted depending on whether they want to stimulate players before training or relax them.
  • Hot and cold recovery pools.
  • A pool with a shallow length and a deep length for swimming or deep water running. Straps attached to the walls keep the players relatively static while their bio mechanics can be monitored by cameras in the water.

Changing rooms

  • Each first team member has their own booth, locker and safe.
  • It is a close replica of the St Mary’s changing room.

Laundry room

  • A state of the art system which uses pure oxygen and specially designed cleaning programmes to wash everything from football kit to corner flags.
  • Will wash 300 kits per day.
  • Players have two sets of kit on matchdays as some like to change at half time, while they are allowed to throw shirts to the fans after the game without penalty.

First team gym

  • Has weights and resistance equipment downstairs and cardio-vascular equipment upstairs

Recruitment and analysis

  • All Saints sides are analysed, from youth teams through to first teams to find areas for improvement.
  • l As well as video analysis of upcoming opponents fed to Sammy Lee and Dave Watson to discuss with Ronald Koeman, scouts go to four games before the first team face a side.
  • l Recruitment work includes identifying young talent to bring in as well as first team players and potential future managers.
  • l The Black Box room is the hub, allowing for player audits to identify shortfalls or potential hold ups for young players coming through.
  • l The manager can access video clips and statistics for virtually any player in the world.
  • l Many decisions on who Saints will sign are based on the analysis and discussions that take place in that room

Executive office area

  • Houses Les Reed, club secretary Ros Wheeler and various other senior admin officials.
  • Ronald Koeman has his office further along the corridor overlooking the training pitches with sofas and chairs for holding meetings.
  • His immediate coaching staff are in the next room, which has an inter-connecting door.
  • Coaching staff of younger groups are along the corridor.

Canteens

  • First team canteen features an area for staff and players.
  • As well as food and drink, also includes areas for rest and relaxation including sofas, TVs and a table tennis table.
  • A small corridor leads into the academy canteen, again offering that pathway through.
  • Academy canteen is on a lower scale than the first team facilities but still has a pool table, table football and has the names of academy players that have made it through to the Saints first team on the wall.

General

  • Cost is £33m with a further £6m to be spent.
  • Academy and first team have separate entrances.
  • Existing older buildings will be turned into pre-academy areas for eight-12 years-olds in the next phase of building.
  • An auditorium will host team meetings and club press conferences. The Saints badge is stitched into each one of the 70-plus seats.
  • An annex building connected to the Markus Liebherr Pavilion will also include accommodation allowing players to rest properly between double training sessions or stay overnight if returning from a long trip.
  • Pictures of Saints club legends, in both colour and black and white, are hanging in the corridors l The bottom of the site will open on January 1, with two more phases of building work to be completed.