Norwich City’s Premier League survival was the main priority for David McNally
Norwich City chief executive David McNally never had any doubts the Canaries would retain their Premier League status. Photo: Bill Smith - Credit: Archant © 2011
Norwich City chief executive David McNally was convinced the Canaries would secure another season of Premier League football.
McNally acknowledged the decisions to cancel both the official end-of-season dinner and to delay the annual player-of-the-season award, won by Sebastien Bassong, did not meet with universal approval but clinching survival was the sole priority.
'I always felt confident that we would retain our status. I never had any shadow of a doubt that we would stay in the Premier League,' said McNally, after two vital league wins in the final week saw Chris Hughton's men finish comfortably in mid-table. 'Yes, of course there were spells when we were disappointed. Personally, I felt particularly low after the defeats at Wigan and Stoke, where I felt our team was capable of winning those games and (Aston) Villa was a low point because on balance we didn't deserve to lose the game.
'What we did do towards the end of the season was to make sure everybody focused on the business at hand.
'We may have upset some supporters and of course we apologise to those fans for cancelling a few end of season dinners and not presenting the player-of-the-season award on the pitch, but we did that because we had football business to complete, we needed to get some points and all of those things could wait for another day.'
McNally, speaking in an interview for the upcoming edition of the club's Canary Magazine, insisted the only contingency planning during the closing stages of the season was to prepare for a third tilt at the Premier League in 2013/14.
'It is really important for us to be financially sound with every eventuality in mind but we were planning for plan A, which was Premier League football for a third consecutive season,' he said.
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'Of course, in our squad development you do look at salaries for Premier League and salaries for Championship football but I would like to assure the supporters that we do have Championship clauses in all our contracts. Not every team in our peer group can say that, but we do.'
• To read the full interview with Norwich City's chief executive buy your latest copy of the club's official Canary Magazine, which is available from the usual outlets next month.
