· 11 September 2025, 13:30
**Amanda Staveley and her fellow co-owners, the Saudi Arabian PIF and the Reuben Brothers, wasted little time implementing updates to Newcastle United's Darsley Park training ground once the 2021 takeover was approved.**
There had been images of Newcastle players taking ice baths in wheelie bins and paddling pools from the middle of Lidl in the days of Mike Ashley's reign, which was something that the club's new owners knew had to change immediately.
Following the takeover, Newcastle were in a position to attract top players with a view to growing the club to be a contender for titles; however, to do that, they would need to be able to offer the facilities top players would expect to see at a title-challenging club.
A new training complex has been discussed from day one of the takeover, and while there have been no real updates on that situation, it still remains a big thing on the PIF's to-do list.
Get in the bin!
Amanda Staveley branded Newcastle's training ground 'a joke'
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Speaking to the [High Performance Podcast,](https://www.thehighperformancepodcast.com/) former Newcastle co-owner Amanda Staveley spoke about the state of Newcastle's training ground before and after the takeover.
> “The training ground was a joke. We had to be able to attract players immediately.“So we couldn't just say, well, ok, we're going to develop a fantastic new training ground and it's going to take 18 months to do the plans and it'll take two years to develop. We needed to solve the problem there and then. So my husband, his brother, the PIF team and Jamie (Reuben), we put a plan together to do that.
>
> “To take what we had and turn it into which, now when you go up, is really lovely. The food was bad, I think people were almost like having cold baths with ice buckets, there was no chirotherapy… There was just all the lack of facilities that you needed.”
Fans are still waiting for news on a new training ground and stadium
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The facilities are constantly being added to while a new location for a mega training complex is sourced, and while Newcastle may still be lagging behind a lot of Premier League clubs, the difference between four years ago and now is night and day.
However, it's thought that the lack of progress on a new training complex may be one of the reported 'broken promises' that upset Alexander Isak, among others.
It was unlikely that the likes of Isak and the current crop of players would still have been around by the time a new training complex was built and ready anyway, but a lack of progress on that front would understandably lead people to wonder if they'd been sold a lie. It's certainly a concern that many fans have.