Joey Barton's public bust-up at Newcastle, which has resulted in the midfielder being given a free transfer, has highlighted the effect social media can have in certain situations.

Sheepshanks, in charge of the National Football Centre project at St. George's Park, Burton, accepts social networking is here to stay.

But the former Ipswich chairman believes programmes should be put in place to help players cope with Twitter.

He said: "The game will have to learn to adjust to social media (networking) and I'm sure it will just as it adjusted to satellite television 15-20 years ago.

"Is it something youngsters need to be educated on? Yes definitely.

"My view is football has got to adjust to social media and not just here at St. George's Park, which is all about learning, but also at club level.

"I hope the programmes will be instituted at club level which will better equip young players to deal with the sort of things that happen.

"But how will we equip people at clubs better? It is by teaching the coaches better here (at the National Centre)."

Sheepshanks is confident the building of the National Centre, which was first mooted a decade ago, will be finished on time and within budget.

He said: "So far so good is the best way to explain it. Construction has been going on for seven months and we've got another year to go.

"We are scheduled to be finished at the end of next summer and it is a case of seeing is believing.

"A lot of the steel work is complete, the hotel buildings are already three storeys high and we are very excited.

"So far we are on schedule and on budget and long may that continue."

Sheepshanks wants the new centre to be a "training heaven" for England's footballers when they take up residence for their 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign.

He is conscious of stories of England players being bored and unhappy when placed into a self purpose built training environment such as that used at the 2010 World Cup.

Sheepshanks said: "I think it will be an enormous benefit for England because they will be in a bespoke training environment.

"I've already met with a number of the England team and they recognise the benefits of having what I would call a training retreat amongst like-minded souls.

"This will be a training heaven in a way. If the guys come here and think 'thank god, we are leaving' we've failed.

"We've got to make sure there is so much here for them that by the time they left they think 'I benefited from that, really enjoyed it, and look forward to coming back'."