Alex Neil: Promotion to Premier League repays faith

Alex Neil: Promotion to Premier League repays Norwich’s faith in me

Norwich manager says he is driven by ‘fear of letting people down’


Alex Neil knew there were doubters when he took over at Norwich City: 'People are always going to question someone from Hamilton who they don’t know.'

Alex Neil was relieved to repay the faith Norwich City have shown in him after he led them back into the Premier League at the first time of asking with a 2-0 victory over Middlesbrough in the Championship play-off final.

Norwich can now look forward to a £130m windfall after goals from Cameron Jerome and Nathan Redmond sealed a surprisingly comfortable win over Aitor Karanka’s side, who did not arrive at Wembley until roughly an hour before the kick-off. Karanka said there was heavy traffic on the journey from their hotel in Watford, although he was keen his players did not spend too long in the dressing room. He did not blame the late arrival for Middlesbrough’s defeat.

Neil admitted he was fearful of letting Norwich down after he replaced Neil Adams as their manager in January. It was a gamble for the club to turn to the 33-year-old, who was player-manager at Hamilton Academicals.

“I more feel pleased for everybody else,” Neil said. “It’s a strange thing to say. The thing that drives me is about letting people down. I hate people letting down. Norwich showed so much faith in me.”

Neil was aware people doubted whether he would be up to the job. “That sort of stuff doesn’t bother me. People always have their say in football. People are always going to question someone from Hamilton who they don’t know. The one thing in football, everyone’s open to criticism. If people like Messi and Ronaldo can get criticised, anyone is open to criticism it.”

It is almost a year to the day since Neil took Hamilton into the Scottish Premier League via the play-offs and he admitted that expectations will skyrocket given what he has achieved in such a short space of time. Neil’s has been a meteoric rise and there will be extra attention on him now that Norwich are back in the top flight after they were relegated last year.

“My biggest challenge is going to be expectation. People are expecting us to go boom and do really well in the Premier League. It’s extremely difficult just to compete at that level. The gulf is vast. But there are teams that manage to do it.

“I’m not silly. I know big the task is. It’s huge. But other clubs of a similar size go up and do well. I’m hoping we can give a good account of ourselves and compete.”

Karanka stressed he will be at Middlesbrough next season. Middlesbrough were five points above the Championship’s bottom three when Karanka joined them 18 months ago and the Spaniard expressed his pride in his players for reaching the final.

Karanka has a year left on his contract and believes the club can win promotion. “Today we proved we are a Premier League club and it is my job to put them in the Premier League again,” he said.

Guardian