Partick Thistle legend and current head of youth Gerry Britton once had to dodge a Samurai sword-wielding yob, and frequently avoid dog dirt at training when he played for the club.
It is of little surprise then that he is delighted with the club’s plans to build their own training centre at a cost of £4million, saying that he felt like a kid on Christmas morning when he heard the news.
All first-team, youth and women's team players will be based at the dedicated centre, a major departure from the current training set-up where the club are forced to hire facilities all over Glasgow.
It will all be a million miles away from the more basic facilities that Britton was used to when he was a player at Firhill.
“We trained in Ruchill Park on disused bowling greens, getting chased off there by council workers,” Britton said.
“We trained on school pitches, we were at what is now the Firhill complex when it was St Columbus on a gravel pitch.
“We called it dog-s*** park because we had to take all the s*** off it so we could train. You would get the jail now for that!
“I was hiding somewhere when [the Samurai sword incident] was all happening. I have to say that incident did sum up the way we went about things in the past and some of the areas we went to.
“Even with the kids, some of the places we’ve training at have been difficult. We’ve been dodging golf balls, we’ve had motor bikes coming across the pitches as well.
“So, to go from those beginnings to where we will be taking the academy in the next couple of years is fantastic.
“Will it save me on mileage? Not half. We had to ship loads of balls and dirty strips all over the city so it will make a massive difference to whole project and the way we go about our business.
“When I heard about it, I felt like it was Christmas morning. It is something we have always strived for and hope we’d be able to achieve but to be told it was actually going to be a genuine proposition was fantastic news.”
The convenience of having such a facility at Thistle’s disposal is only one of the benefits though, with Britton rubbing his hands at the idea of the extra development time it will give to the club’s promising kids.
“If you are at a council facility you end up waiting for people to leave, then you have a two-hour slot and by the time you get everything ready it does cut down on the time,” he said.
“With our own facility, we can double the contact time we have with the kids, even informally.
“In terms of being formal, we can use the facility for analysis, strength and conditioning, so the whole working environment will improve dramatically.
“We have got to look after the kids so to be able to bring them into an environment where everything will be state of the art is so conducive to their lesson.
“It’s right to say to it will help to attract the top players, hopefully, to come to the academy.
“It will be a big pull to parents who a lot of the time are the people you are trying to impress.”
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