Apperley Bridge

i don't know whether they are or not to be honest It's probably slightly detrimental to training if you're shin deep in water at the moment though. Me too. But if the wages were the same......?

 

Didn't say i was. I was talking about the office.

I'm not sure it's a fair assumption that a private school with an obvious focus on education will have sports facilities which are perfectly suitable for a professional club. Could be, might not. Definitely aren't today.

 

This isn't a current story but the reaction of the board member as opposed to the footballer is probably most important.

I went to "A night with the Hendrie's" event at VP year ago when Lee Hendrie played and he was on a panel with John and Mark Lawn.

Lee told a story of how we'd got a loanee from a Championship club who in his first training session had gone for a sliding tackle and got covered in dogshit because people were obviously walking their dogs over what was basically a public field outside of training hours. Because at the time the players were getting changed at VP none of the players would let him in their cars after training and he had to get a taxi back. He couldn't believe that players in lower leagues actually accepted this as a standard to which the response in the dressing room was "They don't at 'normal' places"

Mark Lawn went into a typical rant about pampered football players wanting everything and knowing nothing of real life. To which both John and Lee rolled their eyes as if they'd heard it all before.

But no. I can't imagine players being bothered about such minor things as where they learn their craft. Might as well give up on Apperley Bridge and train at Peel Park. Cheaper I suppose.

 

So is it under water or not?

 

The 4G pitch looks like it is. The fields further away from the main road are underwater. Not sure about the ones closer to the road.

 

The two pitches down there are ten times better than the pitch down at City. And there looked after ten times better in a professional manner, the one through the arches is top class as you would expect from a sport orientated school. They also have use of the gym, swimming pool, all weather pitches, offices and dining facilities.

 

Oh gee, golly gosh, I am super interested in what pitch City trained on, because me knowing that will heavily influence the result tomorrow or something

 

There's a bit more being discussed here than the here and now but you have your facetious little swipe.

 

The training pitches are very good. And whilst I still think there's mileage in investing in our own training facility, for me the bigger priorities are the VP pitch and our scouting, and coaching capabilities. Those elements will have a much greater bearing on our success and the training facilities we already have are adequate for a 3rd/4th tier club.

 

It was petty, wasn't it?

I just don't see why fans need to get involved in beer mat dialogue about training pitches or even the actual pitch itself at Valley Parade.

I get that discussing players won't affect the signings in the same way that discussing Apperley Bridge won't affect where we train, but I'm at least interested in what players we have while I see no reason to be interested in where we train or how often we relay the pitch or drainage issues.

Surely it's just fans overstepping the mark?

Maybe I'm wrong - but this is why I couldn't entertain attending one of those supporter's forum nights. It's none of my business, and I'm happy for it to stay that way.

 

If you're just interested in the 90 minutes why are you here, contributing?

Club custodians come and go but the fans are ever present. Of course we want to discuss how our club moves forward and become sustainable. Why wouldn't we?

 

I was just bitter and angry because I didn't know

Thank you, sir!

 

Lets discuss hot water in the toilets.

 

I'd rather have it in the sinks m8 but you Queenie lot are odd and no mistaking.

 

Yes, been this morning and the 4g pitches were under water yesterday but not this morning. The pitches closest to the road look like they have water on then but not flooded like the rudgby/football pitches on the ground of Woodhouse. They were clearing all the branches from the pitches this morning.

 

But your happy to have your say on here?

 

Leeds don’t own there’s unless they’re cat 3?

 

An interesting debate, but if the training ground wasn’t attached to a school and we owned it, the debate wouldn’t even be happening. It’s got facilities up there with any league 1 or 2 club, it wasn’t a problem for McCall last time or Parkinson, or anytime we’ve had a competent and coherent coaching set up.

We’d all love state of the art facilities, I’d be surprised if Lincoln’s are for that price. But it’s something to strive for once we actually get to a decent level.i.e the championship. Focus on the coaching and playing staff for now and results will improve, and I can guarantee conversations like this will become obsolete. Until our next slump anyway.

 

The owning bit is the point people are making.