Manchester United’s new £50million training ground complex is set to open next month once the club are back from their pre-season tour of the United States.
Ruben Amorim’s side have been using academy facilities since the Portuguese’s appointment and for the last year after their Carrington base was gutted ahead of a major revamp.
According to The Times, facilities away from football have been included in a bid to help performance, including a barbers and other recreational areas.
If a barbers is indeed included, it will be the first known training facility in the country to contain one. It’s reported that several seats and equipment will be provided, though it’s unclear if a barber will be provided or if players can take their own.
Behind the idea is to encourage players to stay at their training base for longer periods of time instead of rushing home. A high-class canteen is also thought to be included.
Commissioned to work on the project was Foster + Partners, led by Manchester architect Norman Foster. Foster is also the man leading the project behind a potential new stadium for Manchester United.
Man United’s new training complex will be ready when they return from their pre-season tour
Ruben Amorim and Co have been using academy facilities for the last year due to refurbishments
A barbers will be included, with one of Cristiano Ronaldo’s previous concerns also addressed
Though no pictures have been obtained, there is said to be more than one floor at the new-look Carrington, with the ground floor employing a flow system that sees players visit the changing rooms, gym, pool and medical and massage areas in the ‘right’ order before football training.
State-of-the-art cryogenic chambers are said to have been put in, with gym facilities upgraded.
United have also addressed an issue that Cristiano Ronaldo pointed out during his second stint at the club. When he arrived in 2021, the Portuguese noted that the pool was the same one he had used during his first spell between 2003 and 2009.
Owners Ineos are said to have accepted that the pool needed an upgrade, and it has now been remodelled.
Staff are reported to have complained that areas were too dark, so more windows are said to have been installed in the bottom floor corridor after it was likened to a hospital.
The second floor is also said to be more open plan with fewer offices and more senior figures taking base at Carrington rather than Old Trafford with the view of making the training ground the base of the club operation.
United will return from the States on August 4, where they will take on West Ham, Bournemouth and Everton. After that, they will host Fiorentina in their final pre-season match before the start of the Premier League campaign.
They will also face Leeds in Stockholm on Saturday, with their first league match against Arsenal on August 17.
Ronaldo pointed out how United had the same pool in his second stint at the club when he returned in 2021
United will play five pre-season matches before the start of the campaign, with three to be played in the United States
Manchester architect Norman Foster, who is behind United’s new stadium proposal, led the training ground project
In terms of a new stadium, United will attempt to build a stunning, 100,000-capacity new Old Trafford under a vast ‘umbrella’ – complete with a public plaza twice the size of Trafalgar Square and their own version of Wembley Way in a breathtaking ‘city of the future’.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe vowed to deliver ‘the world’s greatest football stadium’ and Mail Sport shared the staggering plans drawn up by Foster, which include a cheeky nod to Manchester’s infamous climate.
Three giant towers, inspired by the Red Devils’ trident, dominate the skyline and effectively hold up the ‘umbrella’ – a sweeping glass and steel canopy above that will keep fans dry inside and outside what would be comfortably Britain’s biggest stadium.
A huge wraparound scoreboard also features, along with a three-storey museum and canal-side restaurants as part of a vast fan village in a project Ratcliffe says will ‘preserve the essence of Old Trafford… while transforming the fan experience only footsteps from our existing home’.
Man United have also ambitiously proposed that the stadium, which would become the largest covered space in the world, will be completed within a timeframe of just five years.
