Alex Neil safe at Norwich for now but board demand improvement, says Jez Moxey
Wednesday 28 December 2016 23:44, UK
Norwich chief executive Jez Moxey says the club are not about to sack manager Alex Neil but insists results must improve quickly.
The Canaries were among the pre-season promotion favourites in the Sky Bet Championship following their relegation from the Premier League but, despite a promising start, eight defeats from the last 10 matches have left Norwich in 12th place, 16 points behind second-placed Newcastle.
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There has been calls from some fans for the club to remove the 35-year-old Scot, who took Norwich up via the Championship play-off final in May 2015. Moxey insists there are no such plans in place, but stressed the board wanted to see a quick upturn in fortunes ahead of the trip to Brentford on Saturday, live on Sky Sports 1 HD from 5.15pm.
"We are fully aware of how they [fans] feel about things, we are all concerned, but we are clear about what we are trying to do and how we are trying to achieve it," Moxey told Norwich City TV.
"The board acknowledge results just aren't good enough. We must do better quickly. This is a results-oriented business, everyone knows that and we need to start winning matches, and doing that quickly.
"Whilst we are prepared to take whatever action is necessary to improve results, we don't believe in just following the norm in football by replacing our manager to solve an immediate problem.
"We think it is much more complex than that, we think the manager needs time to get it right and we want to support him."
Moxey also added that promotion remains the aim for the season.
"He [Neil] led this club to promotion before and we think he can do it again," Moxey said.
"After 23 games, I think everyone accepts we should not be in 12th place and we expect this team to start moving up this table very quickly. Promotion remains the aim."
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