[GF38] Training center / training: this time, let’s go!

The subject is (almost) as old as the GF38. And the need is immense if the club wants to sustain itself at the professional level and continue its growth. The training and training center project should be formalized within a few weeks. It is a strong signal sent by Stéphane Rosnoblet and the Grenoble entity. Let us make a full point on the question with the elements in our possession.

A training / training center far from the built-up area: failure or opportunity for GF38?

The question of the place is on everyone’s lips. We will have to wait a bit to get it. After the Sassenage and Froges projects mentioned in recent months, the last “corridor noise” of the moment placed the Côte Saint-André as a place of welcome. After a little investigation, the information was confirmed to us. There were indeed contacts between the city and the club, one evokes the zone of the Weavers (where the grounds belong to the Department).

« Today, in all transparency, there is nothing signed. We advance our pawns », Replied Max Marty. Grenoble Foot 38 is still discussing “2-3 possibilities” (one of our tweeters mentioned the Crolles slope).

I had been told about this sector for Froges… (we are really not very far) pic.twitter.com/H6wmJ0ebDC

– Métro-Sports (@MetroSports_fr) April 22, 2021

Possibilities which are all located outside Metropolitan France. The choice may surprise. It can be explained by several factors (complicated local urban plans, costs, length of discussions, scarcity of land). But ultimately this decision, the origin of which is presidential, is recent as explained to us by the manager of the club. ” Last February we had a meeting with my president (Stéphane Rosnoblet, editor’s note) in Annecy as we often do, to brainstorm on football, on the club. He first asked me if during my first visit to Grenoble I had found possible grounds for this training / training center. I told him that apart from the last 2-3 years we had mostly focused on the stadium. Then he mischievously asked me how long I had been back to the club and if I had found a pitch, which is the basis of the project. I told him what he knew: no, despite 7, 8, 9 studies and that it was hard to find something that suited us. The pres’ then said to me: “Max there are therefore two solutions: either you are not good, or you are not looking in the right place. In the Metropolis, in the valley, there are not these 15 to 20 hectare building land, which can be quickly converted, within a coherent time frame for us. All the months that go by are wasted time and I think you are not looking in the right place. »
So I broadened my search by pushing distances in a reasonable time and I managed to find 2-3 places that could satisfy us and on which we are trying to move forward. »

After years of searching for the rare pearl nearby, the Grenoble Foot 38 has therefore accelerated the movement while time is running out and the deplorable training conditions are more and more frequently singled out, from outside as well as within even of the club where the sporting success of this season does not mask the dysfunctions at the level of infrastructures.

The time lost is not without leaving some regrets. Can we also speak of failure of not having been able to find a solution within the city walls or in the nearby agglomeration of Grenoble? ” Before these last few months, I thought it would be a failure not to find a location nearby and I was not very favorable to look further. Once again our president was visionary on this subject. Now that I know these 2-3 very high quality places available to us, I tell myself that my mistake and my failure is above all not to have gone to look elsewhere earlier. »

A training and training center for the GF38 about thirty minutes from the city-center will undoubtedly allow the club to mesh the territory a little better within the department (even if the work of seduction is already numerous to be carried out. in the agglomeration). In a recent interview with Dauphiné Liberated, Max Marty recalled the “38” of the name of the club. A “political” response, of course, especially if the potential future fields belong to the Department, but also a reminder that the club’s growth will go through the extension of its area of ​​attractiveness. Both for supporters and young talents. It will be recalled, for example, that Côte Saint-André, a club close to ASSE today, provided in the past Ruben Aguilar, Flo Michel, Vincent Di Stefano… Sometimes you don’t need to go very far to recover talent.

« This will give the club another dimension. We will get out of pollution, traffic, a form of insecurity at times, to go a little green and build our projects in peace. », égraine Max Marty. « Territories that suit us better with this rural side, simplicity. We appreciate that we are shown the desire to be with us, that we are happy to see us arrive. It changes everything ! There is a facilitating side. In a dense metropolis, where land is expensive, where it’s competitive, it’s complicated. It’s not that we weren’t welcome, but we often had to convince, explain. »

A strong signal sent around the GF38

Not that we are not the first delighted to see things finally move around this project discussed for ages, but the timing is surprising. Professional football is in crisis and if in Grenoble we like to say that it is less so than elsewhere, that does not mean that the economic situation is flourishing.
And yet the club was keen to continue to move forward on this project with ” an average cost invested which will be roughly equal to what was envisaged for a center around Grenoble », Specifies Max Marty. No discount center, therefore. And it is a strong signal sent by the club and its president on the ambition and the stability desired for the years to come. “ It is a huge sign. This proves the president’s commitment to the project, which is in line with progress. This will establish our foundations for the next 10-15 years. The club will stabilize. We can think that we will exist in the professional world for many years, with sporting hazards of course, but that is the objective. And this tool will be important. »

While the question “where” comes up often, it is usually accompanied by a “when”. This is not the first time that progress has been hoped for and, so far, this famous center has looked like Arles.
« The president has set a deadline for me: by the end of the season the choice of the future center must be announced. », Reassures the manager of Isère.
After the announcement and therefore the purchase of the land, the start of the works will come. Let Max Marty detail the rest of the calendar. ” Things will be done in two stages. Perhaps 12 to 18 months to see the training center land for the pros and 18 to 24 months to see the training center approved. Within a few months of course, we are not diviners. But it would be easy to say that he won’t be ready for another 4 years. I prefer to talk about two years, if it’s in three, you can criticize me. But we have to set ourselves tight targets. I don’t mind being late as long as we have done everything to keep things going. I want it to go fast now. »

La Poterne, the other major building site

This future GF38 training and training center is not the only project that will materialize in the coming weeks. And it would be wrong to think that this is the main thing. What will happen at the “Postern” also marks an important stage in the development of the GF38.
By the Postern we speak of the current training center, the Vercors stadium, where the old training center is located. Neither d’Espagnac nor Stijovic. Land which today belongs to the City and over which the Grenoble club therefore has no control.

A situation about to be changed. An emphyteutic lease will entrust the site to GF38 for a period of 25 years (likely to be more important, the club is negotiating in this direction). The Grenoble club will be responsible for “enhancing” the location and will therefore be able to carry out the work it wishes. The interest is twofold. In the short term, while waiting for the pro ‘group to move to the new training center, it will improve the structures on site (grounds, infrastructure). In the medium term, let the club manager detail the ambition here too. “ It is an essential element for our pre-training and our female team. If the deal is finalized, it will be for that alone. After that, it’s just common sense for the pro team to use what will exist before their move.
We need to have a D1 team, the Grenoble melting pot is exemplary on the issue of women’s sport and we must be an important showcase. We know that girls reach the top level at a younger age than boys and that they are less “mobile”, so we have to offer them “intramural” structures. As for our pre-training, it will be a very important axis of our success. No question of excluding the Grenoblois from our training, quite the contrary. We therefore need a tool on site for all these young people under the age of 15 and that it is qualitative, that it makes people want. We appreciate the City’s approach, which understood our request. “

The process is underway and only a few details still need to be refined. A final agreement could be validated at the next municipal council in June, which could allow GF38 to start the first work in July with the objective of having the new facilities ready in November 2021.

Whether Grenoble is in Ligue 1 or Ligue 2 next season, these projects will be set in motion. Max Marty recalled that “ the current structures are not worthy of a professional club “. A unanimously shared opinion. The GF38 will thus acquire tools to improve the present and prepare for the future. ” By remaining truly Grenoblois, truly Metropolitan, truly Isérois », Concludes the manager. This will undoubtedly be one of the keys to future success. Growing up yes, but keeping your identity.

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