Saints may be at the cutting edge of technology after unveiling their redeveloped Staplewood training ground, but Martin Hunter believes you can still smell and taste the atmosphere they are striving for.

Katharina Liebherr and Ralph Krueger formally opened the new training ground, which has cost £33m with a further £6m to be spent in the final phases of the development.

It is a big outlay for the club but one that stands them in great stead for the future. One of the guiding principles is to keep all players from under-7s through to the first team on the same site.

There are different pitches and different facilities for players as they progress through the system, steadily working their way up the complex towards the plush surroundings enjoyed by the first team stars.

It without doubt creates an aspirational culture at the club and keeps youngsters striving for more.

“It’s superb,” said Hunter, the club’s technical director who had a significant input into the design and features of the complex.

“It fits what you need.

“Some clubs have got bigger facilities but they can become impersonal.

“Some clubs have got split sites but we don’t believe in that.

“We’ve got one site with all our players and there’s a smell, you can taste the environment that we’ve got and that’s very important for us.”

Saints are utilising the latest in technology and thinking to try and improve their players.

That extends down the age groups.

Soon youngsters will be issued with their own iPads allowing them to access an app that will feature clips of them playing, helping them to stay focused on where they are and what they need to do.

“That’s coming along the pipeline, but certainly with the older teams we will use the auditorium pre-game and post-game to talk,” explained Hunter.

“We will have targets that as coaches we will set for the teams and then as coaches they will have their own individual targets based on positional things.

“For the younger boys it’s more a generic thing.

“There is great detail and great thought in what we do on a daily basis.”

He added: “All the games are videoed.

“We have either got gantries or static cameras and we will be very precise in what we do in terms of filming certain sessions.

“Things that can be used for the under-21s can be used for the younger players and coaches.

“There’s a system being developed on an app so players can look at their own footage, at the moment they can look at that on their phones.

“They need to take ownership of their learning because it’s not about the coach kicking the ball, it’s about the player taking charge of their learning and improve that way.”

The centrepiece of the Staplewood development is the Markus Liebherr Pavilion, named after the late owner who saved the club from administration and whose vision the new facilities were.

Hunter feels it is vital that Saints have a base such as this as they look to push forward and continue to attract young players to the club.

“They are very important. They are things that we have been striving for,” he admitted.

“Now the Pavilion is finished and we are developing further pitches and further facilities for the younger players.

“When that’s up and running we will have state of the art facilities to help us develop the existing players that we’ve got and the younger players that show great potential and hopefully will come through the system.

“It gives us more ammunition (to attract young players) so they can work in first class facilities and in all areas of the game, including their education and life skills.

“It’s important that we produce a rounded character and a person and not just a talented person.

“The facilities that we’ve got here will help us and aid us to do that.”

Hunter is responsible for overseeing the coaching structure throughout the club and ensuring that the famous Saints supply line of young talent keeps on rolling.

“We work in three phases through the PPP,” he explained.

“We have the foundation phase which is the youngest boys, then we have the phase really from 12 upwards which is the youth development phase and then at the upper end we’re talking of under-16 players right the way through to the under-21s which is the professional development phase.

“Part of my brief is to link all of those phases and make sure that the coaches are all singing from the same hymn sheet which is important.

“The curriculum that the younger players get is far different from the older players, so for example it might be principles of defending and attacking rather than preaching a system of play.

“With the smaller pitches we will play smaller games on smaller pitches with smaller numbers and therefore more contacts of the ball, and it progresses right the way through up the system.

“There’s a pathway not just into the first team but for talented boys to move through the age groups.

“If you look at some of the boys that are early developers they have the potential to play in an older age group.

“If you go back to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain he spent a year playing a year down because of his physical development.

“We treat everybody as an individual and have certain core elements we will use but the individual is important.

“The player is at the centre of what we do and it’s a multi-disciplinary way we attack the development process.”

That development of the individual is a principle Saints have long held as they have become famous for producing not only good players but good people.

It’s something Hunter wants to see continue.

“Gareth Southgate mentioned that about the boys that have played in the under-21s – not only are they excellent footballers, they are very strong characters and very grounded and that is very important for us,” he said.

“We want players if they leave this football club and can’t play at the top level to play at a good level and be good characters, that’s part of what we do.”