A NEW Midlands home for Premiership Wasps would ‘create an enormous amount of challenges’ for Worcester Warriors, admits director of rugby Dean Ryan.

Wycombe-based Wasps are looking for a permanent home ground and have been linked with bases at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry and Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium.

Warriors have launched six new regional academy centres around the Midlands and invested more than £1million in trying to harness young talent for the club.

Ryan said: “We are investing a lot of money in the region and we have got an academy region designated to us.

“Warwickshire, over the years, has probably been the most productive stream of our academy and it is also Leicester’s and Northampton’s academies.

“To plonk a Premiership rugby club in there would probably create an enormous amount of challenges.

“I can’t quite see the merits of it — apart from purely commercial benefits for Wasps’ first team.

“There are two other major players on the other side of Warwickshire who wouldn’t be over the moon about it because we are all working in that area for one first thing.

“I can’t imagine we would be the loudest voice — there are two major players in Leicester and Northampton on the other side of Warwickshire and they probably have louder voices than us.”

Wasps confirmed they were still searching for a permanent home and acknowledged the club had been linked with a host of locations inside and outside of London.

Ryan said: “You need to be a pretty enthusiastic Wasps supporter to keep wandering around following them but that’s something for them.

“But the considerations of picking up the club and starting again somewhere else are much wider than just plonking it on a stadium and thinking it will go well on a Saturday.

“The considerations need to be talked through before people think it will go ahead — and I don’t even know if it will. I have not heard anything official but I have been asked the question so I will answer it.”

Wasps, in a statement, said: “Wasps have made no secret of our desire to find a permanent home which reflects the ambitions of the club.

“We have also been exploring opportunities for high-profile European games, should we progress to the knock out stages, as those games have to be played at a stadium which has a minimum capacity of 15,000.”

The Wasps’ club statement added: “All discussions are subject to confidentiality requirements and are therefore commercially sensitive.

“As such they have to remain confidential for the time being.”