Wolves have today revealed plans to plough in over £1million investment to produce state-of-the-art playing surfaces at both Molineux and the Compton training ground.

 

Work has already started on the main first team pitch at Compton while the bulldozers will move into Molineux 24 hours after Sunday's final Barclays Premier League game of the season with Sunderland.

 

The result of the summer's work will see state-of-the-art fibrelastic surfaces at both facilities with a top quality surface offering greater comfort underfoot, ongoing durability and less risk of injury.

 

A new undersoil heating system is also being installed both at Molineux and Compton, giving the option to heat the first team training pitch for the first time since it was built.

 

"As a Premier League football club, we need to ensure that our football facilities are fit for purpose for the very highest stage," says CEO Jez Moxey.

 

"We have all seen a lot of clubs struggle with pitches last season after what was one of the worst winters we have experienced for many years.

 

"But we now have the opportunity to carry out this extensive improvement work which will see our playing surface to become one of the very best in the League.

 

"To have the same surface at both Molineux and the training ground will be ideal in terms of players' preparation, and will provide optimum comfort underfoot for the players, thus reducing the risk of injury that can happen with some types of new pitches. 

 

"The pitch will also help the groundstaff maintain a divot free playing surface, improve ease of maintenance with an automated irrigation system and provide a great pitch for many years to come.

 

"This will be the first complete renovation work to the Molineux pitch for 20 years, but we are confident it will be worth waiting for as we head into our second successive season in the top flight.

 

"All in all, the investment at both Molineux and Compton is costing in excess of £1million, which I believe again demonstrates our total commitment to the highest standards of quality for all aspects of the Club.

 

"We will be presenting our plans to the Safety Advisory Group next week."

 

The pitch renovation work at Molineux is expected to take approximately five to six weeks, after which the groundstaff will have around six or seven weeks to grow the pitch in time for the start of the new season.

 

Head groundsman Wayne Lumbard explains the process in greater detail.

"There are three or four different surfaces which we have looked into and researched as well as speaking to a number of clubs and physiotherapists," he says.

 

"The fibrelastic surface we have chosen will give us more bounce and resilience and help with the joints, knees and ankles.

 

"Everything is coming out at Molineux in terms of the irrigation, drains and undersoil heating.

 

"It will then be started again with the drainage, gravel grit, undersoil heating, sand profile and the fibrelastic on top.

 

"Everything is brand new and will be done to the highest specifications.

 

 

"At present, there is actually a slope on our pitch from the north east to the south east corner. 

 

"However, with these improvements we will be levelling up the surface at the four corners to create a camber effect at the centre circle which will help drainage disperse evenly across the whole pitch.

 

"The structure will then be in place but it will still depend on us keeping a grass cover as we would normally.

 

"Even with state-of-the-art systems, if things go wrong and games are played in difficult conditions you can lose grass.

 

"But everything will certainly be there with the foundations to produce a top class pitch and with the work we will do there's no reason why we can't have a pitch as good as anything in the Premier League."

 

The Molineux surface suffered from time to time last season with extra use when the team had to train at the stadium due to frozen training ground pitches.

 

The developments at Compton should reduce the risk of this happening again.

"The top is being taken off the first team pitch at Compton and four inches of fibrelastic put in so it will be the same as at Molineux," added Lumbard, pictured as the training ground work gets underway.

 

"So all the same factors will apply in terms of the top quality surface and reducing the risk of injury.

 

"New undersoil heating is being provided and will be connected to pipes that already exist so if that we have do have another winter from hell there's the opportunity to put that on and the team can carry on training at Compton."

 

The summer development work will spell a busy time for Lumbard and the rest of Wolves' groundstaff but he believes it is the signal for "exciting" times.

 

"Our current pitch is fairly old fashioned now having been in place for 20 years and we have had problems regarding drainage," he added.

 

"It's great to be in this position with the Club making a substantial investment in a state-of-the-art pitch which will be able to cope better with all weathers and conditions.

 

"As a groundsman, it's heartening to see the Club thinking forward and looking at the bigger picture, and hopefully we will be able to provide a perfect playing surface for the team to perform on."