New £32 million training facility 'a major coup' for Hartlepool United admits chairman Raj Singh

The Mail previously confirmed that Pools would be returning to Maiden Castle for the 2021-22 campaign after spending the past few seasons at East Durham College.

The move will see Dave Challinor’s side benefit from the new £32 million Sports and Wellbeing Park in County Durham.

The partnership will also see Pools work with Durham University with student placement opportunities including coaching integration and sport science collaboration.

And Pools chairman Raj Singh was quick to express his delight with the partnership.

“Having the new Maiden Castle site as a training base alongside the Durham University partnership is a huge coup for us,” he told the club website.

"It’s something that Lee Rust has been working on for quite a while and I’m delighted to get there with it.

“We’ve discussed longer term aspirations with the local authority around training facilities being based in the town and we’ll absolutely continue to work toward that, but at this stage it was important to secure the here and now. As of this week we will be training at one of the best facilities in the north east.”

Challinor’s squad are set to return to pre-season training at Maiden Castle on Thursday morning as preparations for the 2021-22 League Two season continue. This week has seen Hartlepool confirm the sale of Brad Young to Leicester City while also announcing new contracts for Nicky Featherstone and Gary Liddle.

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