Last week I visited Tottenham’s new training ground for the first time and it left the impression of a facility that will prove a useful tool in convincing top players to join the club.
Evoking comparisons with Real Madrid’s Valdebebas base, Spurs’s £30million, 73-acre site in Enfield, which opened this summer, is hugely impressive.
Press are taken from the gate to the centre by golf buggy (a journey the players are, of course, spared) and the ride on a road through several pitches up to the vast 12,000-square-metre main building creates a sense of anticipation and grandeur.
Clubs are always looking to sell the whole package to new players and Spurs’ new facility is a powerful weapon for Andre Villas-Boas to use in competing with Chelsea, Arsenal and the Manchester clubs in the market place.
It is a huge testament to their ambition — something that should resonate with leading players everywhere.
