McNally hopes 'rubbish' story does not deter signing

Matthew ChambersNorwich City chief executive David McNally last night again reassured Canaries fans - and a potential new signing - that a weekend report stating that the club was on the brink of financial meltdown was well wide of the mark.Matthew Chambers

Norwich City chief executive David McNally last night again reassured Canaries fans - and a potential new signing - that a weekend report stating that the club was on the brink of financial meltdown was well wide of the mark.

McNally has instructed lawyers to issue a writ on the News of the World following a story saying the club was on the brink of administration and hopes it does not affect a new player signing from being completed.

McNally, speaking on Radio Five Live, said: 'The story is complete and utter fabrication and there is no truth in the story whatsoever. We are really very disappointed about it and quite frankly it just smacks of irresponsible journalism. I'd like to reassure Norwich supporters everywhere that the story is total rubbish. It was disappointing and unhelpful at such a time when we were enjoying going top of the league for the first time. We had just launched our new season ticket campaign and we're in the throes of trying to sign a new player. I wonder what he thinks when he reads such rubbish about his potential new club?

'Clearly our supporters know that our financial position is like many clubs, difficult. We have too much debt on our balance sheet, we posted �5m worth of losses last year so we don't have some financial challenges that we are facing up to but we reached an agreement with our major lenders and they have been very helpful.

'Our majority shareholders are rock solid and right behind the football club. Both on the park and off this club is operating as a team, we're all in this together. There are some real challenges ahead but we know what we need to do to overcome them. So this story, which I'll repeat, is total rubbish was a real shock.'

Regarding the newspaper's claims that accountants were poised to act, McNally added: 'One of the paragraphs of the story reads: 'Financial experts Ernst and Young and KPMG have both been called in as potential administrators'. Now, I'm the chief exec and I've been at Norwich City for seven months and I've never had one conversation with them, not one phone call - and neither has my chairman.'