Alan Smith: New Category One academy will take Crystal Palace to another level

Former Crystal Palace manager Alan Smith believes that the new £20 million investment in the academy will take the South Londoners to another level.

The redevelopment, which club graduate Gareth Southgate opened on Thursday afternoon, will have six full-size pitches, including an outdoor 3G pitch with floodlighting, a show pitch which will have a 500-seater stand, and a full-size covered indoor 3G training pitch with a built-in sprinkler system.

Smith managed the Eagles on two separate occasions and was Steve Coppell’s assistant when they reached the FA Cup final and finished third in the First Division. During Smith’s time as youth team manager, he oversaw the development and progression of John Salako and Richard Shaw, Southgate and many more.

Speaking following the opening, Smith said: “It was really nostalgic for me today – it just feels fantastic seeing this training ground. When we started in 1984, and then Steve Coppell joined us in 1985, it was pretty much where we wanted to take it.

“But we never ever thought it would ever be as magnificent as this. It’s taken a long time in coming, but just to be here today to see it really has been a privilege. To manage to get Gareth back today was meant to be.

“To make it as a top professional, and Gareth alluded to it, it’s a mental toughness that you have got to have. It will be about the people who work here – the people that intermingle. It will give everybody a real confidence.

“Gareth summed it up so well in his speech, but we always felt a little bit insecure when we turned up at Arsenal or Tottenham, partly because we used to turn up sometimes in a minivan.

“This building is going to take the club on to what I consider another level. I think that even the senior professionals being here today will think: ‘This is a club. This is somewhere I want to be part of.’

Asked by the South London Press whether he believed the new academy complex was the beginning of a legacy for Palace, Smith said: “Yeah, I think it is. The Holmesdale Road is special now. I don’t want to get too carried away, but it’s up there with the Kop – that noise that comes out of it.

“This extra training ground gives us a real pride in what we’re about. People do love to see youth team players coming through. For me, it’s just a plus, plus, plus today, and I think it’s a proud moment for anybody who was sitting here.”