It has been five years in the making.

But Saints will unveil their £30m Staplewood redevelopment to the world this morning and can now boast one of the finest training facilities in football.

The path to this point has not always been smooth.

Several delays have meant the completion date has been pushed back by almost a year and a half, and with the project having cost more than double the original estimate.

But the plan so dear to the heart of late owner Markus Liebherr has finally come to fruition and produced a lasting legacy for the club.

Gone are the antiquated buildings and the temporary accommodation that sprung up as the club expanded into the Premier League era. Now they have been replaced with state-of-the-art equipment and facilities.

Saints are able to boast scouting, development and sport science departments that will be the envy even of many supposedly bigger clubs.

Squads from the first team right down to the youngest ages of the academy system have access to luxurious surroundings and top notch playing surfaces.

Redeveloping Staplewood was one of Liebherr’s main priorities when he rescued the club from administration in 2009.

He wanted the club to become a sustainable entity and saw the training facilities as something which desperately needed updating in order for Saints to compete with the best in the land.

The Daily Echo first revealed that plans had been submitted to New Forest District Council in December 2009, with Nicola Cortese later unveiling them at a press conference.

The first raft of planning permission was granted in January 2010. However, as the plans developed, the final go ahead for the project came in February 2011.

It took a year before the club announced that construction work had officially begun at Staplewood – but it was not plain sailing from there with several delays in the project, including a pause in October 2012.

At that stage the club were still confident that the work would be completed for the start of the season in 2013.

But the players didn’t not begin to use the new facilities until they returned for pre-season training at the beginning of July this year.

The finishing touches were still being made to the training ground as Ronald Koeman and his new squad took the Premier League by storm.

But they are now complete, allowing Saints to show it off to the world, and complete the legacy Liebherr so desperately wanted to leave, some four years after his untimely death, and make the club world leaders off the field as well as on it.

Log onto dailyecho.co.uk from 10am today for news from the official unveiling of the Staplewood facilities, and don’t miss tomorrow’s Daily Echo for a superb eight-page pullout.