Grant shares fans' frustrations

Under-fire Canaries boss Peter Grant says he shares the fans' frustrations at the club's predicament - but has asked them to be realistic over Norwich City's role in the Championship picture.

Grant's plea came on the day that the club's chief executive admitted that Premier League football remained the club's ambition - and that every result was under scrutiny.

But with parachute payments a thing of the past, Grant says his hands are tied in the transfer market, and asked supporters to understand the problems he faces.

"I think you have got to be realistic, about what we are dealing with, that is the biggest problem," he said.

"I am as frustrated as everybody else. I see the tension in the players - maybe that is why they are doing the silly things they are doing."

Grant claims he is being priced out of the loan market, with players demanding five-figure weekly salaries and clubs asking hundreds of thousands as a "loan fee".

"I am desperate to bring better players and we have always tried to do that, but the best players cost you money," he said.

"The board are desperate to help, but I go to them sometimes and it beggars belief what they are on.

"I can't legislate for it at times because I'm thinking, 'there is no way he is worth that'.

"So it is not the board saying you can't get him - I am just thinking, 'no way is he worth that'. And that is something maybe I have to change.

"Every manager tells me it is the graveyard, the Championship now, because the days of people helping you are gone and that makes it really, really tough."

Grant said he understood the frustrations of fans who have seen City lose their last two games to slump to 20th place in the Championship table.

"We understand," he said. "We are all desperate to do well, we are all desperate to win.

"We want to be sitting top of the league, that's where I want to be, nothing else. I don't want to be second, I want to be first."

Grant admitted he was under pressure to produce, although tonight's Carling Cup tie at Manchester City takes a firm back seat to the league match at home to bottom side Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday.

"Of course you are going to be under pressure, but under pressure you have to be realistic as well, I have said it from day one," he said.

"If I want the best players you have got to have big money. I know the ones who will make a difference to us - every player I went for has either ended up in the Premier League or he is with the top three teams, every player, so I know the ones I want to get to make us better."

"But if you can't get them you have to try and make other things better. What I have tried to do is bring a foundation here, to say 'let us make it a more rounded group'."

Grant believes circumstances have prevented City from "getting out of second gear" this season.

"We have done bits and bobs - 30 minutes here against Southampton, a period against Cardiff," he said.

"We could have won five against Crystal Palace without playing anywhere near what we are capable of.

"I haven't got the right balance in the middle of the pitch. "It is difficult to be critical of the forward players because I don't believe they are getting the service and to be fair whether it has been Doherty and Dublin or Doherty and Shackell, we have defended our box ever so well.

"So, individually, some of them have been doing fine, but as a team definitely not been good enough on the ball and at times it has been very difficult to understand why that is.

"They look edgy, they take too many touches. And I have been there as a player - sometimes you understand that a five-yard pass seems as if it's a 55-yard pass when you are not playing well, when you are having that wee bit of a lack of confidence in yourself.

"And that is why you see me like a maniac at the side of the pitch, it's because of the basics they are not doing well."