James McPake insists Dunfermline’s new training centre adds ‘professionalism’ to the club and can help him win the race for new signings this summer.
In fact, he has revealed even just the promise of the club’s own purpose-built base has already been enough to convince new recruits to join the Pars.
The Fifers began using the first phase of their planned new facilities at the former Rosyth Civil Service Sports Club last week.
The opening of the 4G artificial surface was hailed as a ‘landmark moment’ for the East End Park men.
And McPake is thrilled about what it will mean for him and his squad, both on the pitch and off it.
“It’s brilliant, genuinely,” he said. “At the minute, it is just the astro that’s there, but it at least gives us a base.
“It’s just got a different feel to it, when you know you’re going into your own training venue.
“It’s the first time I’ve had it since I was a Hibs player. Before, I had it at Coventry but at Dundee I never had it. We never had our own training base.
“You can go down, you can spend as long as you want, you can go back in the afternoon, you don’t need to phone for a pitch. If people need to go down and do extras it’s there.
McPake: ‘Basically, we decide’
“It adds a bit of professionalism, in my opinion, to the club.
“Basically, we decide when we’re on that pitch, we decide how long we’re on that pitch for. I’m delighted with it.”
Dunfermline, whose hopes of a promotion play-off spot were dashed with defeat at Airdrie on Saturday, have added an elevated gantry at the side of the pitch so they can film training every day.
“It’s just all the stuff that, as a manager and coaching staff, you’re desperate to get,” added McPake. “But, when you’ve not got your own training ground, it’s really tough.
“It’s things that seem simplistic and small but, on the grand scheme of things, are huge for developing players, in my opinion.”
Plans for the training ground, which will eventually include a gym and staff offices, have been in the pipeline since before McPake’s arrival as manager almost two years ago.
They may not have been the deciding factor in his own recruitment but he admits he was excited by the prospect of the facilities aiding his coaching.
And he is convinced signing targets will also be attracted by the new base.
“When I first came to the club, or when I was speaking about coming, I was really excited [about the plans],” he said.
“It’s not the reason I came – I would have come even if we were never going to get a training pitch, because of this club. But it was something that excited me.
Development
“You want to coach players, you want to see the development, so that excited me about the club.
“We’ve [already] signed players by saying we’ll be moving to our own training ground.
“And I’m glad, in that sense, that it’s happened, because it’s shown the players that I wasn’t lying to them, that the club wasn’t trying to just pull the wool over their eyes.
“It’s there. The ones we’ve told about that now see it.
“We’ve got the added advantage of, ‘come and meet me for a coffee, I’ll show you about East End Park’, which is fantastic. That’s worked a few times.
”But then now you say, ‘we’ll jump in the motor’ and, in five minutes, ‘this is our training ground’. And, ‘it’s going to look like that’, and ‘that looks perfect already’.
“I think just adds, like I said, a bit of professionalism to the football club.
“Not too many teams in Scotland have got their own training ground. They might have what they call a base.
“Dundee United have got a base at St Andrews, but it’s not theirs. Hibs have got theirs, obviously, Hearts don’t even have it.
“St Mirren’s is good because it’s theirs, Celtic, Rangers. Aberdeen have obviously got Cormack Park, and you heard how big they went on that.
“Yes, it’s still phase one, but it’s happening and it’s ours.”
