Norwich City have announced that the Hamilton player-manager Alex Neil will take over as their manager following Neil Adams’ resignation this week.
Neil takes over a side sitting seventh in the Championship table, 11 points behind the leaders Bournemouth, and said that he is looking forward to the challenge. “I’m absolutely delighted to have the opportunity to manage a club of the stature of Norwich,” he told the club’s website. “It’s an exciting challenge at a huge club and one that I’m looking forward to. I’ve watched a lot of Premier League and Championship football over the years and I’ve always been really impressed with Carrow Road and the Norwich fans and the way they get the place going when they get behind the team.
“It’s a forward-thinking club with a fantastic infrastructure and big ambition which matches my own ambitions. Of course I’m sad to leave Hamilton, a brilliant club which has been such a huge part of my life for so long. But when an opportunity as exciting as this with a club like Norwich comes your way, you take it. The aim now is simply to win as many games as possible and move Norwich City up the table.”
Neil, speaking to the Daily Record, also insisted that it will he who is calling the shots at the club. “The bottom line is if I’m a manager I’ll manage. I’m not going for someone to tell me what to do, there’s no point in me going if that’s the case.”
“My description of a manager – and this is nothing to do with Norwich, just my description – is he is the guy that manages the team and any players that come or go then he’s the guy that makes the decision whether they come or go.”
Norwich’s chief executive, David McNally, added: “We’re delighted that Alex has agreed to become Norwich City’s new manager and we hope he’s here for a long time.
“It was important for us to have somebody who had the drive, ambition and commitment to work as hard as it takes to take the club forward. Lots of names were under consideration, but for us, as the board, he was the unanimous choice and the first choice.”
On Thursday, Norwich agreed a compensation deal for Neil to take charge and he leaves the New Douglas Park side having guided them into the Premiership in his first full season in charge. He is Norwich’s 39th permanent manager and the tenth Scot to take charge at Carrow Road. At the age of 33, he is also the second youngest manager in England’s top four divisions, behind Mansfield’s Adam Murray.