The men’s first team are set to return for pre-season testing on Thursday, June 16th and will be going back to a much-improved training facility at Sparrows Lane.
The club’s staff have been working on upgrades to the facility during the summer.
Speaking to CharltonTV, Director of Recruiting, Steve Gallen said: “One of the things when we were interviewing managers and they were asking me questions, asking me about the team and the training ground. The training ground is going to be totally different, a new entrance, new building and it will have a real fresh feel about it. Having a new manager and a new feel to the training ground, hopefully some new players in quite soon as well. It is going to have a real fresh feel to it, everybody I am speaking to is really excited about it.”
The improvements have been made to support the first team and to help with the club’s Category One academy application.
Owner and CEO Thomas Sandgaard said: “It is a better facility and better foundation for what is happening.
“The academy will now fill out the entire brick building that has been there for years. It is good for them to have that facility but it also checked the box naturally for us in terms of Category One application. It helps the first team as well as the academy.”
The investment in the training ground improvements have been funded by the club and supported by an investment from Valley Gold.
Valley Gold Chairperson, Matt Baker, said: “We have been very keen from a Valley Gold perspective to continue to support the academy and the infrastructure there, particularly as we are trying to push for Category One status with the academy. We knew that the facilities needed to be improved for that so we have been able to give £163,000 towards improving the facilities for the academy over there which we are pleased with.”
Charlton fans can support the Academy by signing up to the Valley Gold scheme. Valley Gold enables fans to support the club's Academy in unearthing the talents of tomorrow, as well as giving them the chance to win cash prizes.
Click here for more information on how you can become a Valley Gold member.
(Transcription by Alex Forrest)