If we don’t Neil it Alex is still the tops

ALEX NEIL has already massively overachieved at Norwich even if he fails to get them into the Premier League says the club’s chief executive.

The former Hamilton boss will lead the Canaries out at Wembley on Monday in a £100million Championship play-off against Middlesbrough.

But even if they don’t go up Norwich chief David McNally has been amazed at how well Neil has fitted into the Carrow Road club.

McNally said: “Alex has done as well as anyone could have hoped for and his management team have been superb.

“Whatever happens next week we are in a good place. Every game since Alex came here has felt like a must-win. I’m not sure if that is just the nature of the game now or the expectations we and the Norwich supporters set.

“He has not had the opportunity to try anything really with fringe players or those who perhaps needed some game time.

“We genuinely said to him, ‘Just get us up the league’. We had six teams ahead of us, most by a significant number of points, and he delivered far more than that. We were close to automatic promotion in terms of accumulating 2.2 points per game and having a near 70 per cent win ratio.

“That’s unheard of in a league as competitive as the Championship. Eddie Howe was Football League Manager of the Decade and his win rate is around 40 per cent. Alex overdelivered in that respect.”