Exclusive: Southampton agree deal to give Staplewood pitches to Eastleigh

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As the curtain draws shut on another season, Southampton and Eastleigh are pushing ahead with prospective plans to renovate their pitches.

Southampton are set to invest £1 million in revamping some of the facilities at their training base, including all five of their full-size grass pitches.

Pitch 2 at Staplewood will be transformed into an identical pitch to the one at St Mary’s. The hope is it will enable players to feel more attuned with the distances and sprinting patterns they will have to cover in a game.

Two uniform pitches will also suit Ralph Hasenhuttl’s modus operandi in training, where a substantial amount of time is spent on fine-tuning pressing synchronisations and building the team’s play out from the back. The club believe the change will make it easier for players to replicate what they do in training, in matches.

Southampton are also pressing forwards in building a new gym in the coming months. Speaking recently in a fans forum, Director Of Football Operations Matt Crocker admitted the need to construct a high performance gym for the team.

“Our gym is a small gym. It is a rehab gym. We need to develop the infrastructure you can physically see within the environment, ensuring we are still up there competing at the highest level in the Premier League because our game is a very physical game.

“We need the best facilities to ensure there are no excuses for the players and the staff to get on a really physical level which will help us on the pitch.”

Prost International can reveal the turf from the soon-to-be torn up Staplewood training pitches are being completely relaid at the Silverlake Stadium, Eastleigh’s home ground.

The pitches, which have anywhere between 90-120 tonnes of sand underneath the grass surface, will be transported to Eastleigh. The National League club have obtained a grant to carry out the maintenance work.

Renovations are set to take place in the next 7-14 days. The whole process is expected to take an additional fortnight to complete.

Sources say the entire procedure will cost in the region of £250,000, with Eastleigh covering a considerable five-figure sum to the overall remunerations. Supplementary activity is also afoot at the Silverlake, with a new drainage system being installed.

The wide-scale operation is being shouldered by an outside contractor, not involving groundstaff from either Eastleigh or Southampton.

It is understood the two clubs share a close relationship with one another and are steadfast in helping to develop football from grassroots level across Hampshire. Talks of a quarter of a million pound agreement were first mooted in early March.

Once the current Staplewood turf is transported to Eastleigh, work will begin on transforming Southampton’s five full-sized pitches, including aforementioned redevelopment of pitch 2.

Staplewood also boasts two full-size 3G surfaces and four smaller pitches. The latter is also expected to be renovated during the off-season.

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