Tottenham hope their training ground will next year become the London base for clubs like Barcelona ahead of key European matches.

Spurs plan to open their ‘player lodge’ – a state-of-the-art 45-room facility close to their Hotspur Way headquarters in Enfield – early in summer 2018.

The club’s plan is that the multi-million-pound facility, which is currently under construction, will be used by top clubs before Champions League and Europa League matches in London.

Instead of staying at a hotel and training elsewhere, the lodge - not to be confused with Spurs Lodge, the club’s previous training ground in Chigwell, Essex, which they left in 2012 - would allow these clubs to train and sleep on the premises.

Planning permission was granted in January 2015 and construction work is well underway, meaning the lodge may be open in time for the start of the 2018-19 season. To support their case, Spurs presented letters from Barcelona and AC Milan to Enfield councillors late in 2014.

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These documents indicated that the player lodge would meet the requirements of these clubs, while there is also a strong chance England would stay there the night before matches at Wembley. The national team regularly train at Hotspur Way prior to friendlies and qualifiers.

The lodge will be located at Myddleton Farm, a stone’s throw from Hotspur Way. As well as housing club and international sides, Tottenham players will use it to rest between double training sessions, which are often favoured by current manager Mauricio Pochettino.

Spurs could also stay at the lodge before home games and other fixtures in London, while prospective new signings would use it as their transfers were being concluded – the perfect scenario for those deadline-day deals that are not sealed until late at night.

The player lodge represents another step in Spurs’ attempts to join Europe’s leading clubs. Their training ground, opened in 2012, is regarded as one of the best in the country. They hope to move into their 61,000-seat stadium – a project costing about £800million – for the 2018-19 campaign.

Regarding the new ground, the picture should become clearer towards the end of the month, when Spurs will decide whether to activate their option to stage home fixtures at Wembley next season.