The huge long-term benefit of Sheffield United's new training ground plan after Chris Wilder's "gold-dust" verdict

Chris Wilder has welcomed Sheffield United's purchase of a new training ground site as "incredibly beneficial for the football club" going forward after strengthening the Blades' plans to achieve category one academy status. United yesterday confirmed a deal had been struck to buy the HSBC Sports Club site in Dore and build what they describe as a "state of the art" new facility for their men's team.

United have been looking for a new site for three years after outgrowing their current Shirecliffe training base, which also houses their academy teams and is currently not big enough to satisfy the requirements to upgrade to a category one academy. United plan to keep Shirecliffe and devote it entirely to their academy, with further plans to develop it and achieve the status that will help them keep hold of players that are otherwise at risk of being poached by other top-class systems in the local region.

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United are in the same catchment area as category-one clubs including both Manchester sides, Liverpool, Everton and Leeds United, having lost star youngsters Will Lankshear and Kylan Midwood to Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City last season for a fraction of the value they would have received if United had category one status. That badge of honour will also help them attract talent from the local region and the multi-million-pound facility will also give United a tangible legacy from spending three seasons out of the last five in the Premier League, earning hundreds of millions of pounds in the process.

"There's an incredible amount of planning and work being down over numerous years regarding that," Wilder said ahead of this weekend's trip to Bournemouth. "We have the ambition to be category one but we can't fit everybody onto this site, so we can't be cat one at the moment. But that's the ambition and I think we'd be a really good category one football club. We're producing players against the odds really, getting swarmed by Man City and Man United and Liverpool and Everton and Leeds and everyone around us who are cat one and have that ability and opportunity to nick our best players.

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"So for those players to stay, the likes of Blaster and Brooks who want to play for this football club, that's absolutely gold-dust for me. So to improve our status in academy football, where we're punching against the big 'uns, there's been great work done there but we want to give the academy the best opportunity in improving players, getting more players and keeping more players as well.

"We've lost players to Tottenham and Man City before and all the good work, we can't just undo by allowing that. So ambition to be category one means we have to have a bigger site for the first team. That's been ongoing for a number of years and it'll be incredibly beneficial for the football club, going forward in the medium and long-term plan."