Norwich City appoint Neil Adams with long-term ambition “to be competitive in the top half of the Premier League”

It was announced last night that Adams had been handed the role on a permanent basis, having taken over as interim following Chris Hughton's sacking with five games of the Premier League season still to be played.

Adams was unable to keep City in the Premier League but has now been handed a three-year job and tasked with getting the Canaries back to the top flight

McNally said he would not be naming any of the other candidates interviewed for the job because he had 'too much respect' for all of the candidates and their clubs but said: 'Neil was the first person to be offered the job, nobody has turned down the job.'

He continued: 'Our ambition is that we want to get back to the Premier League and the appointment of Neil was carried out with that in mind at the earliest opportunity.

'Of course we respect the Championship, it's a very tough, competitive league but in terms of whoever had been here today there as no consensus was among the support, whoever was the favourite on websites, the polls, with the bookmakers, they would have had a minority support, so whatever would have been the outcome today the majority would perhaps have asked us the question why?

'We understand that but had to focus on getting the best man for the job based on the criteria we were looking at and Neil is that.'

Chairman Alan Bowkett re-emphasised the club's long-term ambition to be established in the Premier League, saying: 'The ambition of this football club is to be competitive in the top half of the Premier League.

'We believe we can establish, from the way we are managing this football club, a club that can compete for a European place and win a trophy.

'The possibility of winning the Premier League in the current financial circumstances is beyond us but we believe we can be in the upper reaches of the Premier League and that's why we have made this appointment today.'

Malky Mackay, Gianfranco Zola and Neil Lennon were all rumoured to be in the running for the City vacancy, but Bowkett defended the time taken by the board to decided to appoint Adams.

'The reason we took longer than we wanted to take was because we did a review of the German market, the Italian market, Spanish market, the whole of the British Isles, to find the candidate who stood the best chance of getting us promotion as soon as possible,' Bowkett said.

'And the things we were looking for, as well as experience, is some of the basic things such as coaching skills, leadership, vision hard work, a progressive attitude, hunger for the job and the commitment to do it the Norwich way and Neil easily come top of that in terms of those various attributes.'

Adams confirmed he has people in mind to bring in as part of his coaching staff, but wouldn't reveal any names.

The new City boss said: 'My reaction is one of immense pride and honour and privilege, they are the overriding emotions without a shadow of a doubt.

'I can understand some supporters may have reservations or doubts, I get that totally. There was a lot of experienced and more than capable managers out there, that's not my business.

'All I'm doing now is looking forward to getting this club back into the Premier League, it's something I look forward to with relish. I'm a supporter myself, I'm a fan of the club so I know how the fans are hurting right now after last season, the same way that I would be and many others, that's why it's important that we give it the best possible go next season.

'The chief executive and the chairman have talked about playing the Norwich way and I've gone on record a few days ago as saying I want to play the type of football that Norwich supporters want to see.

'We need to win games and to do that we need to score goals, it's simple enough, that's what this club has been used to and that's what we've got to get back to.'

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