New Training ground - at De La Salle Sports & Social Club

[HenneysKnee]

Excellent post from BA
It would be nice to see the players pop in to help with local PE lessons or something on a Friday afternoon if they’ve trained in Barrow on a Friday morning but other than that we are doing ok. Crowds held up superbly last year despite the team being shite for most of the season so we must be doing something right…..

[Wintergreen]

Don McEvoy lived in the house on the corner of Prospect Rd and Hollow Lane.

Mick Hartland lived in the Bay Horse. Or at least he seemed to as he was often spotted there in his slippers.

[Dexter]

Tony Field, Roy McCarthy and George Harrison all lived together in digs on West View Road and they always spoke to me as they often saw me as they trained. On that point they used to run from the ground to to the fields on Devonshire Road and train where the Victoria Academy is now.

[bluebird90]

Hornby mentioned on the radio a few weeks back that there were plans in place for some sort of Hybrid structure of training? I guess that this wasn’t taking up or did he mean we’ll carry on training in Barrow on the Friday prior to home games.

Lots of solid work goes on by the community foundation and the bluebirds trust but there’s definitely more that can be done to gather momentum and it should be the club (not the community section or trust) taking a professional lead on it. Matches should be free for kids under 11 full stop - no messing about with these tickets, then a token cost for 11-16 year olds. Match days should have things set up around the ground, beat the keeper, face painting, bouncy castles, magicians, photos with players, Xbox competitions before matches. Giving a few kids a flag to wave as the players come out, doesn’t wash in 2022.
The community section is run out of Furness Academy I believe and schools pay them to go in and take lessons, that’s hardly the club putting itself out is it? If it wasn’t for the enthusiasm of Rudds and co, who should still have a role in the coaching set up as part of that connection, then it would’ve fallen on its backside by now.
Then there’s the fanzone, get it open more, pay staff and make BAFC somewhere to be when there isn’t a game on as well as when there is. Why have the club knocked back junior and open age finals for the last few years but gone and held their own events? Get discounts at local takeaways, shops etc for season ticket holders. All these things build a connection.

[Peaceful Grecian]

I just hope we don't spend much money on it, why let the community's of Salford gain from our investments when Barrow has nothing.

Fully agreed. It just feels wrong to me to accept that it's unsustainable for Barrow AFC to be based in Barrow-in-Furness. If the borough's good enough for the 67,000+ people that live there, why is it out of the question to ask footballers to find a place to rent in the area or take the train up from Manchester (there are direct trains daily)? Exeter's managers have complained about this for years too, and fans have been told that players just don't want to relocate to the 'remote' south-west of England, but training in Bristol has never been considered - even with Paul Tisdale as manager (never relocated from Bath, 100 miles away by the fastest road route, more than Salford to Barrow-in-Furness).

Commit to the area, commit to the town, commit to the people, invest in the local economy, invest in infrastructure locally. Sort something out with Furness College and it could be a win-win for the club and for the area, likely with better facilities than the club's getting in Salford. It'd probably mean that those playing for the club are a little bit more invested in the club's future, too.

[Moribund]

I just hope we don't spend much money on it, why let the community's of Salford gain from our investments when Barrow has nothing.

Fully agreed. It just feels wrong to me to accept that it's unsustainable for Barrow AFC to be based in Barrow-in-Furness. If the borough's good enough for the 67,000+ people that live there, why is it out of the question to ask footballers to find a place to rent in the area or take the train up from Manchester (there are direct trains daily)? Exeter's managers have complained about this for years too, and fans have been told that players just don't want to relocate to the 'remote' south-west of England, but training in Bristol has never been considered - even with Paul Tisdale as manager (never relocated from Bath, 100 miles away by the fastest road route, more than Salford to Barrow-in-Furness).

Commit to the area, commit to the town, commit to the people, invest in the local economy, invest in infrastructure locally. Sort something out with Furness College and it could be a win-win for the club and for the area, likely with better facilities than the club's getting in Salford. It'd probably mean that those playing for the club are a little bit more invested in the club's future, too.

Exeter's managers have complained about it for years? Well what does that tell you?

With the millions upon millions you've made from academy players, there's got to be a reason why you've been languishing in League 2 for so long - probably can't attract the right players...

[Stephen Leonard]

I just hope we don't spend much money on it, why let the community's of Salford gain from our investments when Barrow has nothing.

Fully agreed. It just feels wrong to me to accept that it's unsustainable for Barrow AFC to be based in Barrow-in-Furness. If the borough's good enough for the 67,000+ people that live there, why is it out of the question to ask footballers to find a place to rent in the area or take the train up from Manchester (there are direct trains daily)? Exeter's managers have complained about this for years too, and fans have been told that players just don't want to relocate to the 'remote' south-west of England, but training in Bristol has never been considered - even with Paul Tisdale as manager (never relocated from Bath, 100 miles away by the fastest road route, more than Salford to Barrow-in-Furness).

Commit to the area, commit to the town, commit to the people, invest in the local economy, invest in infrastructure locally. Sort something out with Furness College and it could be a win-win for the club and for the area, likely with better facilities than the club's getting in Salford. It'd probably mean that those playing for the club are a little bit more invested in the club's future, too.

That’s all good thinking but the price for the players moving here woudl have to be a long multi year high value contract - they are not going to turn their lives upside down for a 12 month deal where they could then be binned or even worse frozen out by a manager change as has happened many times .

Committment is a 2 way thing and the truth is loyalty doenst really exist in football

[32mile_cul-de-sac]

Fully agreed. It just feels wrong to me to accept that it's unsustainable for Barrow AFC to be based in Barrow-in-Furness. If the borough's good enough for the 67,000+ people that live there, why is it out of the question to ask footballers to find a place to rent in the area or take the train up from Manchester (there are direct trains daily)? Exeter's managers have complained about this for years too, and fans have been told that players just don't want to relocate to the 'remote' south-west of England, but training in Bristol has never been considered - even with Paul Tisdale as manager (never relocated from Bath, 100 miles away by the fastest road route, more than Salford to Barrow-in-Furness).

Commit to the area, commit to the town, commit to the people, invest in the local economy, invest in infrastructure locally. Sort something out with Furness College and it could be a win-win for the club and for the area, likely with better facilities than the club's getting in Salford. It'd probably mean that those playing for the club are a little bit more invested in the club's

That’s all good thinking but the price for the players moving here woudl have to be a long multi year high value contract - they are not going to turn their lives upside down for a 12 month deal where they could then be binned or even worse frozen out by a manager change as has happened many times .

Committment is a 2 way thing and the truth is loyalty doenst really exist in football

This all day long

[Peaceful Grecian]

Fully agreed. It just feels wrong to me to accept that it's unsustainable for Barrow AFC to be based in Barrow-in-Furness. If the borough's good enough for the 67,000+ people that live there, why is it out of the question to ask footballers to find a place to rent in the area or take the train up from Manchester (there are direct trains daily)? Exeter's managers have complained about this for years too, and fans have been told that players just don't want to relocate to the 'remote' south-west of England, but training in Bristol has never been considered - even with Paul Tisdale as manager (never relocated from Bath, 100 miles away by the fastest road route, more than Salford to Barrow-in-Furness).

Commit to the area, commit to the town, commit to the people, invest in the local economy, invest in infrastructure locally. Sort something out with Furness College and it could be a win-win for the club and for the area, likely with better facilities than the club's getting in Salford. It'd probably mean that those playing for the club are a little bit more invested in the club's future, too.

Exeter's managers have complained about it for years? Well what does that tell you?

With the millions upon millions you've made from academy players, there's got to be a reason why you've been languishing in League 2 for so long - probably can't attract the right players...

Find me an unhappy ECFC fan right now and I'll find you a liar. Our fans made peace a long time ago with the idea that we'll never be in the Premier League, but that's fine, we're happy existing, being sustainable in the football league, getting to see usually decent football and the occasional 'one of our own' that is clearly destined for bigger things (Grimes, Ampadu, Watkins).

The 'millions upon millions' made by the academy also isn't sheer dumb luck, it's come from investing in Devon-based talent (Grimes, Exeter; Ampadu, Exeter; Watkins, Newton Abbot) - talent that may have slipped through the net had we required them to travel 2 hours each way to train in Bristol.

Manchester's bigger, sure. As is Bristol. But there, Barrow are competing against nine fully profesional clubs in Greater Manchester, including three League Two clubs (Stockport, Rochdale and Salford). Cumbria meanwhile has only two fully professional teams, which makes the catchment area for 'local' talent pretty huge. It's an advantage ECFC has successfully leveraged, and Barrow could do it too.

[beachy01]

Have i really just seen someone say players should go in help with PE lessons some people on this forum really are clueless

[FanzoneFan]

Exeter's managers have complained about it for years? Well what does that tell you?

With the millions upon millions you've made from academy players, there's got to be a reason why you've been languishing in League 2 for so long - probably can't attract the right players...

Find me an unhappy ECFC fan right now and I'll find you a liar. Our fans made peace a long time ago with the idea that we'll never be in the Premier League, but that's fine, we're happy existing, being sustainable in the football league, getting to see usually decent football and the occasional 'one of our own' that is clearly destined for bigger things (Grimes, Ampadu, Watkins).

The 'millions upon millions' made by the academy also isn't sheer dumb luck, it's come from investing in Devon-based talent (Grimes, Exeter; Ampadu, Exeter; Watkins, Newton Abbot) - talent that may have slipped through the net had we required them to travel 2 hours each way to train in Bristol.

Manchester's bigger, sure. As is Bristol. But there, Barrow are competing against nine fully profesional clubs in Greater Manchester, including three League Two clubs (Stockport, Rochdale and Salford). Cumbria meanwhile has only two fully professional teams, which makes the catchment area for 'local' talent pretty huge. It's an advantage ECFC has successfully leveraged, and Barrow could do it too.

Peaceful Grecian I really enjoy your posts on here - but we’ll never be able to have a successful academy like yours and it’s all down to geography. You can recruit from the South - Plymouth area - West - Barnstaple - North - Taunton and East - Weymouth - whereas we have the sea on one side of us so basically we can get lads from Barrow and say go East to Kendal and Lancaster and that’s about it. Really pleased to see you got promoted.

[Desmond2-2]

I suggest all those that slated the new training base, have a read of Pete Wild’s blog, and next time you can’t wait to criticise a decision by the club, you might just have a rethink.

[Main Stand SeasonTct]

I suggest all those that slated the new training base, have a read of Pete Wild’s blog, and next time you can’t wait to criticise a decision by the club, you might just have a rethink.

I will reserve judgement on the new training ground until December / January time and winter has set in.

[Mark Johnson]

I suggest all those that slated the new training base, have a read of Pete Wild’s blog, and next time you can’t wait to criticise a decision by the club, you might just have a rethink.

Maybe after Coopers scathing rants about the training facilities last year, Wild was 'encouraged' to say how good they were in his blog.

[Desmond2-2]

I suggest all those that slated the new training base, have a read of Pete Wild’s blog, and next time you can’t wait to criticise a decision by the club, you might just have a rethink.

Maybe after Coopers scathing rants about the training facilities last year, Wild was 'encouraged' to say how good they were in his blog.

My point was people being critical of them,immediately after they were announced. Wild,will be relaying his opinion in his blog, nobody else’s, and he’s more than happy.