Norwich City

Alex Neil coy on '£2m deal' claims

By Neil Wilkes, Editor-in-chief | 31 December 2016

Norwich City manager Alex Neil refuses to be drawn on claims that he signed a new deal with a £2m compensation clause over the summer.

Norwich City manager Alex Neil has refused to comment directly on claims that he was given a new £2m deal over the summer following the club's relegation from the Premier League.

A report in The Sun on Friday claimed that the 35-year-old was handed a new deal by chairman Ed Balls in July which means that he will be paid the equivalent of two years' salary - £2m - in compensation if he has sacked.

Pressure has been mounting on Neil in recent weeks after the club fell to eight defeats in 10 league games to leave them seven points off the Championship places, but the club have insisted that he will be given time.

"I have never spoken about players' contracts so I will not speak about my contract because there is a national newspaper article out there," Neil told reporters when asked about the reports. "The one thing I will say is when we came down, the players, staff, pretty much everybody who works for the club took a wage cut. That is obvious when you have not delivered your goals and gone down a division in this business. Everybody's money has dropped and rightly so.

"Relieving me of my position is not going to solve all the issues the club has got. The fact is we came down from the Premier League and that carries its own burden. We have a lot of players on considerable contracts for the level we are operating at and if we don't get back up that becomes a bigger problem. I think by dealing with one issue, which people would deem to be me, all those other problems don't disappear.

"I need to win the next game, then move on and win the one after that. That has always been the case and will continue to be. That is football. Whether you win five in a row or lose five in a row, it is always the next one. All that happens is the longer you go without winning that pressure grows."

The Canaries travel to Brentford this evening for their final fixture of 2016.