Golf course | Vital Football

Golf course

bickymon

Vital Squad Member
Hey what happened to the golf course wigan athletic purchased to build new training facilitys i think was in chorley ?
 
Sad that story. Would have been an outstanding site, the kind that Martinez so desperately wanted. The first team and academy together along with that fabled indoor pitch that we’ve always wanted in order to upgrade our academy status but have never been able to get. One of the hammer blows of losing that Premier League money. Wonder if the plans to build the indoor pitch/facility at CP are still alive? I remember that youth keeper we have writing about it in one of his blogs.
 
Quietly sold after the purchase of Euxton.

https://www.thelaurelsatcharnock.co.uk/
https://www.pitchcare.com/news-media/charnock-richard-golf-club.html

Basically the grandious plans for Charnock Richard were well and truly kicked into touch after El Presidente's 'I know best wisdom' led to relegation from the Championship.
Euxton was purchased for a knock down price and no need for Charnock Richard.
The club managed to buy a ready made facility at a price it could not refuse and went on to spend a substantial amount to improve and upgrade that facility, this was all done for a fraction of the cost that starting from scratch at Charnock Richard would have cost, that isn't ' I know best wisdom' it is sound business practice and nothing to do with which league we play in, once this was done done there was no need to retain ownership of the charnock Richard site.
 
The club managed to buy a ready made facility at a price it could not refuse and went on to spend a substantial amount to improve and upgrade that facility, this was all done for a fraction of the cost that starting from scratch at Charnock Richard would have cost, that isn't ' I know best wisdom' it is sound business practice and nothing to do with which league we play in, once this was done done there was no need to retain ownership of the charnock Richard site.

Well, when you are stood in a group where the chief exec has just explained that Charnock Richard isn't happening because of relegation. In part due to the increasing cost of the pitches and lower finances ... you tend to believe him.
The fact that Euxton came along later suggests someone got lucky.

And try reading the post properly, the two points were separate. You ended up elaborating on a point already made.
 
OLFE, that may be the case, but as LMB said once we got Euxton there was no need for Charnock Richard to be kept on. I think the circumstances of how it came about don't alter that.
 
Well, when you are stood in a group where the chief exec has just explained that Charnock Richard isn't happening because of relegation. In part due to the increasing cost of the pitches and lower finances ... you tend to believe him.
The fact that Euxton came along later suggests someone got lucky.

And try reading the post properly, the two points were separate. You ended up elaborating on a point already made.

Oh I read the post properly, I also read between the lines as well, it was a dig at the clubs current owners, something you are good at, is that because moving to Euxton didn't allow you free access to troll the players every day, isn't that the real reason for your critical outlook to the top management even when in this case it was a job well done.

The Charnock Richard project was never scrapped it was shelved due to two reasons, yes finance from the relegation but mainly they knew that the purchase of the Euxton site was a distinct possibility, even after the CR project was shelved Architects were still working on the design and submitting planning changes to the local authority.
 
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Euxton is a fantastic facility but too small. We can’t expand the site so it’s impossible to build an indoor pitch and the academy/youth teams can’t play with the first team and are stuck at Christopher Park. Now CP is big enough, but would need a shed load of work done to make the pitches all weather, it would also not only need an indoor pitch built but new indoor facilities for the players as the ones we currently have at CP are ancient. So in short it would cost an absolute bomb. Far less than they’ve spent so far on Euxton.
 
Manchester United don't seem to have a problem with the first team squad and other youngsters occupying different sites, that goes for Everton and Liverpool as well whose first teams have separate sites from the kids.
 
Liverpool are moving into the same site (Melwood to Kirkby) as their academy.
United's Academy is at Carrington for older groups.
I also thought Everton's academy was at Finch farm for older groups (they have shadow sites too).

Burnley also recently upgraded their academy and have the academy at their training ground.

And if anyone is interested ... the driving range next door to Euxton makes a very good bacon sarni if you go up there to have a nose at the training sessions / behind closed door friendlies.
 
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Liverpool are moving into the same site (Melwood to Kirkby) as their academy.
United's Academy is at Carrington for older groups.
I also thought Everton's academy was at Finch farm for older groups (they have shadow sites too).

Burnley also recently upgraded their academy and have the academy at their training ground.

And if anyone is interested ... the driving range next door to Euxton makes a very good bacon sarni if you go up there to have a nose at the training sessions / behind closed door friendlies.

love a nice bacon sarni i do.
 
Just because Man Utd have two bases doesn't mean it's right for us. Given the respective clubs it's like comparing apples and oranges. To minimise operating costs one site is highly preferable for a club of our size, not running two bases about ten miles apart.
 
Roberto Martinez always believed the youth teams/academy and first team should be together. It creates a closeness within the club from the top down and must make it far easier for youngsters to transition to the first team, especially when they see each other each day, train together on the same site and interact with each other. I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if our first team being based away from everyone else is yet another factor as to why we still haven’t managed to successfully bring through a youth team player into a regular first team player since we left CP. It can’t be easy to all of a sudden have to move from CP to Euxton away from everyone you know and without the comfort of your daily routines to be thrown into a new environment with players and coaching staff that you’ve never worked with and in some cases met before.
 
Snippet from the Charnock Richard planning permission submission.

"The new site will allow us to meet the Category 1 Academy requirements in the Elite Player Performance Plan and combine the academy with the professional/development squad. It is common place for the professionals to train on the same site as the academy as this provides the academy students with incentives to graduate to the professional ranks and also means a more efficient use of facilities
and pitches. The Charnock Richard facility will allow us to compete on the same footing as other clubs in our region in terms of the attraction and development of young footballers."
 
Am i dreaming it or was there not a lot of issues getting planning permission / council for CR site and that is what caused the initial delay after the purchase?
 
Quite possibly. The residents vehemently opposed a proposed housing development on the Camelot site and as I recall were also opposed to the golf course redevelopment despite obvious reassurances traffic increase would only be marginal and only at certain times for the latter. They were successful on both occasions which was very surprising given the development that seems to take everywhere else with little consideration given for current residents concerns and especially as both sites had former uses reducing the likelihood of any redevelopment being knocked back.