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| ‘I’ve never seen anything like this,’ says Pablo Zabaleta, ‘We came here with the Argentina national team when we played against Portugal last month and the players were very impressed with it – even Lionel Messi. |
Those are the first words you read on entering the new £200million
City Football Academy. Some may have doubted the Sheikh’s prophecy when
Manchester City struck oil.
Daily Mail reports Manchester City’s new £200million City Football Academy was
officially opened on Monday by Tony Book, City's most decorated captain and a
three-time manager of the club. The 80-year-old played for City
between 1966 and 1974, mostly under legendary manager Malcolm Allison. He
led City to their second league championship in 1968 and the FA Cup a year
later. In 1970 Book was again captain as City became the first English team to
win a European and domestic trophy in the same season: the European Cup
Winners' Cup and the League Cup.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, was also in
attendance as guest of honour and announced plans to spend £50m in government
money on football pitches and coaching at grassroots level. Osborne said
that the government wants England to have the best national team in the world
to match the best league in the world - the Premier League.
City studied 70 different facilities across all sports in Europe,
the USA and Australia, and went through 19 different designs before settling on
this one.
There are 16 outdoor football pitches in total that are kept well
watered by an 8.1million-litre underground tank which collects and recycles
rain, and an indoor facility that is both longer and higher than the one at St
George’s Park.
Two thirds of the site is dedicated to youth development so
Pellegrini and his players have access to three pitches and a specialized
half-pitch designed for goalkeeper Joe Hart and his No 2 Willy Caballero. Each
has a different surface – Desso, RouteZone and the more heavily sanded
GrassMaster – so in theory City could tailor their training for away games to
match their opponents’ pitch.
There
is also a ‘secluded’ pitch surrounded by buildings that enables the players to
work on set-pieces without being hindered by windy conditions. For a team whose
numerous training-ground spats were caught on camera from the public footpaths
around Carrington for years, the privacy will be particularly welcome. To that
end, 2,000 mature trees have been planted around the site.
‘I’ve never seen anything like this,’ says Pablo Zabaleta, who
signed for City the day before the takeover in 2008. ‘We came here with the
Argentina national team when we played against Portugal last month and the
players were very impressed with it – even Lionel Messi.
‘Top players always want to train at good facilities. If you want
to improve our squad, they are probably going to be big players coming from top
teams in Europe. They have to see that City is one of the top clubs in the
world. Having these facilities just makes it special.’
Asked if he agreed that the club now had no excuses for failing to
deliver, Zabaleta said: 'Yes, because I think we have everything here to become
a better team now.
'That is always what you expect from big teams - you have good
facilities but also you cannot make mistakes or relax. When you have those
things you have to show why you've got them.'
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City
has won two Premier League titles since Sheikh Mansour took over the club - and
they now boast world-class facilities
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