Last year, PIF approved a £200million investment towards a new training complex as the club explored potential sites around the city. Land near Newcastle Racecourse and Seaton Burn was considered before the club landed on the site at Woolsington.

The training complex is still subject to the deal to purchase the land being completed. Following that, the club are set to unveil plans for a new world-class training facility.

While Newcastle’s current training centre at Darsley Park has been given a makeover and received significant investment since the 2021 Saudi-led takeover, club chiefs are aware the upgrades have been a short-term fix before moving to a new state-of-the-art complex.

It is hoped the site will be secured and planning permission approved for work to start this year. Construction is expected to take around two years.

The Daily Mail’s report claims the world-class facilities, designed by architects Populous, will include a mini-stadium, on-site accommodation, a media suite, a cinema room, spa-like facilities, as well as many indoor and outdoor pitches.

While progress has been positive on the field since the takeover, the new training ground is viewed as the first major off-field step to take Newcastle to the next level as a football club and a clear statement of ambition from the owners.

Populous previously worked on the Real Madrid Sport City training centre, which the new Newcastle chief executive officer David Hopkinson will be familiar with, having spent time with Madrid as head of global partnerships.

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NUFC CEO gives honest training ground assessment as ‘world-class’ upgrade planned

Last month, Hopkinson spoke candidly about Newcastle’s training ground situation and the need to move to a new site.

“When you look at the facility you have today, let’s talk straight with each other, it’s probably a seven out of 10,” Hopkinson admitted. “It gets the job done. I don’t think we have a lot of world-class talent that say, ‘I want to stay here because of the training ground’ or ‘I want to go to Newcastle because of the training ground’.

“Even with the renovation we’re doing, which will make it better, we probably only get to an eight. We don’t get to a 10. We can’t get to a 10 on the current footprint, which is the reason why we’re planning a very big investment to go and build a 10.

“If you look at the arms race that training grounds have become – in the Premier League, in football, in North American sports – the players are spending an inordinate amount of time there and the expectations have changed and evolved from simply where we train to, ‘Yeah, that’s where I drop the kids off because they’re being babysat while I’m training’ or ‘This is where the car is being looked after’ and ‘This is where I get my haircut’.

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“This is what’s happened in North American sports, and now there are changing expectations here too of what players are going to want in order to choose to come here or stay. Those are the investments we’re going to have to make to get to a world-class level.”

Newcastle United head coach Eddie Howe comments on training ground

Earlier this week, Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe was asked about the club’s training ground having previously admitted he was unlikely to be at the club by the time a new training ground was built.

“I’m supportive of the club moving forward with a new stadium and a new training ground,” Howe said. “But all that work is still going on behind the scenes and the people responsible for those dealings are dealing with it.

“I’m supportive of it and, whatever time it takes, is the right time to make the right decisions. If they’re rushed and we make the wrong decision, that wrong decision will be punished for a long, long time. So whatever time it takes to get it right, I’m fully supportive of.”