Inside the training ground: October 10th 2013
Thursday October 10th 2013. It was the day that WeAreBrighton.com saw the future of the Albion and we realised that it looked very bright indeed.
The Amex may have been completed to its current 30,666 capacity by that point in time, but arguably an even more important construction project was being carried out in a rather large field between Shoreham and Lancing.
It was here that Tony Bloom’s millions were funding the building of Brighton’s new training ground. The development would help to attract the best young players to the Albion’s academy (which was still yet to receive Category One status), feature a multitude of pitches including grass, under heated and the latest in 3G technology, provide offices for coaches and staff and even contain a players garden.
The new facility would be light years away from the ground that the Albion were hiring at the time at the University of Sussex, which was famous for forcing captain Danny Cullip to hand in a transfer request because he was fed up of stepping in dog shit.
And when you look at the young players such as Aaron Connolly and Steve Alzate coming through and the fact that we’re now an established Premier League club, you can see that the investment was well worth it.
In the days before we were accused of besmirching the good name of the club, we were lucky enough to get a sneak peek behind the scenes of the new venue on a guided tour for the media led by Martin Perry, manager Oscar Garcia and his assistant Nathan Jones.
Back then, it was just mud, steel and concrete. Now, it’s where Graham Potter drills his first team into beating last season’s Champions League finalists 3-0 and we’re honing exciting young talents like Connolly and Alzate. It’s another reminder of how far we’ve come in such a short space of time.
