‘This is not a vanity project’ – Inside Stoke City’s £10m training revolution and its real life impact

Stoke City F.C. vice-chairman Richard Smith believes the club’s new £10 million first-team training complex at Clayton Wood will play a major role in keeping players fit and speeding up injury recoveries.
He admits there are no guarantees it will instantly transform results, but he is confident the long-term benefits will be clear. According to Smith, one way to judge the building’s success will be by how often players remain available for selection and how quickly they can return to action after setbacks.
The facility, completed after a 15-month build, has been designed to meet Premier League standards. Smith, who has nearly four decades of experience in construction, described the project as deeply satisfying — from sketching the first ideas on paper to seeing the finished building in full use. He said the club is thrilled with the outcome.
With ambitions of returning to the Premier League, Stoke want to attract top-level talent and provide facilities comparable to those of established top-flight clubs. Smith stressed that simply having the best infrastructure in the Championship is not enough; the club must match the heavy investments Premier League sides are making in their training bases.
Since Smith was brought in by his father-in-law, Peter Coates, in 2008 to oversee club properties, more than £25 million has been invested at Clayton Wood. When he first arrived, the site lacked basic utilities like electricity and running water, and parts of it would flood during winter. Significant funds were later spent on drainage and irrigation to make the area fully functional.
Before constructing the original £4 million pavilion in 2009, which later underwent multiple expansions, Smith and his team studied facilities at other clubs, including Everton F.C. and Aston Villa F.C.. However, as both senior and academy squads grew — alongside evolving academy regulations and rapid advances in sports science — the original building became increasingly cramped.
Although a “future development” had always been part of the long-term masterplan for the site, the decision to construct a separate building solely for the first team came later. Once the need became clear, the chosen location proved ideal.
The new complex includes around £400,000 worth of state-of-the-art gym equipment, even featuring customised club-branded weights. Advanced technology such as force plates tracks reaction times, while specialised compression trousers help accelerate muscle recovery. The club has also upgraded from renting a mobile cryotherapy chamber to owning a permanent, world-class unit. Players can undergo short sessions at temperatures as low as -120°C to reduce inflammation and promote faster recovery — though maintaining the system, particularly the supply of liquid nitrogen, comes at a considerable ongoing cost.