**Newcastle United have had to issue an official statement asking fans to stay away from the training ground entrance after a near-miss this week.**
It has been half-term this week, and as a result, many young fans have been gathering around the entrance to Newcastle United's Benton HQ in a bid to catch a moment with their heroes and hopefully bag an autograph or two.
Unfortunately, the only way they can really do that is to loiter around the entrance and hope the players stop their super-expensive beasts to entertain the masses.
It's not like when I were a lad and you could just rock up at Maiden Castle in Durham and practically train alongside the players and hear Kevin Keegan barking orders in your ear as if you were one of them.
Newcastle training sessions when I were a lad
Newcastle United issued a statement on Thursday asking fans to stay away from the Benton HQ
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However, the club have now had to [issue a statement today](https://www.newcastleunited.com/en/news/training-ground-safety-notice) asking fans not to congregate around the training ground after one player felt that things got a bit too close for comfort when a young fan stepped into the narrow road outside the ground this week.
> To ensure the safety of all supporters, players, staff and members of the public, we are asking people to avoid gathering at our Training Centre entrance and surrounding roadways.**
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> Why are we asking this?
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> **The only entrance for players, staff, deliveries and construction vehicles to the current Training Centre site is a narrow, single public lane that is shared by vehicles and pedestrians.As the number of people gathering at the Training Centre increases, so too does the risk of serious injury with so many vehicles and people sharing a small space.
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> As crowds gather, people are stepping into in the lane and creating a risk to their own safety and to road users. Individuals also continued to pose a risk to themselves and others by entering busy roads to approach players' vehicles while at traffic lights up to a kilometre away.
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> **Please avoid the Training Centre entrance**
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> To support public safety, we have instructed players and coaches not to stop their vehicles upon entry or exit.We do not take this step lightly.We value the incredibly strong connection that exists between supporters and our players and coaches. But safety must come first, and we trust our fans will support the club, players and staff by adhering to this request.
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> We will continue to organise opportunities for supporters to meet the players through the season, which will be communicated through newcastleunited.com and official channels.
The decision has been a long time coming
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The club have been pondering taking this action for a while, but also understood that opportunities for fans to meet players are rare, so allowed it to continue, but now this incident has forced their hand.
It's obviously a shame for those fans who enjoyed autograph hunting outside the training ground, but we fully understand why the club have taken this step, especially with the construction vehicles coming and going through the same entrance.
Who knows, maybe they'll make the new training ground more accessible for fans ... we doubt it, though. WE aren't allowed nice things.