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Ed Balls: 'Alex Neil has our backing'

Norwich City chairman Ed Balls insists that manager Alex Neil has the full backing of the club's board.

Norwich City chairman Ed Balls has insisted that manager Alex Neil has the full backing of the club's board.

The Scot took over at Carrow Road in January 2015, leading the side back to the Premier League via the playoffs that season. Their tenure in the top flight was to be short-lived, however, and they found themselves relegated to the second tier in May.

Despite a strong start to the season, the Canaries have now suffered defeats in their last four Championship games to drop to sixth place in the table and pile pressure on Neil.

"In football, of course, if you have three or four bad games that puts you under pressure, but a couple of wins can turn things around and we really need those wins at the moment. But there really is no complacency here and also no sense that we have got things fundamentally wrong," Balls told The Pink Un.

"Football's about fine margins. There's no complacency here and Alex more than anybody is determined for us to turn things around in the next few weeks. He's proven as a manager that he can take a football club from the Championship to the Premier League. He did that for us two years ago, he did that from a difficult position, considerably worse than this point in the season in the Championship than we are facing today, and he turned it around with a record that was second to none.

"We would have gone up with 120-odd points if he'd been there for the whole season. Football clubs have good runs and tough runs. Everyone knows we've got a Premier League quality squad, not just a Championship squad, we've got a manager who knows what he's doing. The board are backing the players and the manager."

Neil's side next face a tricky trip to playoff-chasing Derby County on Saturday.

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Norwich City manager Alex Neil feels like he's headbutted a horse after his side are relegated from the Premier League despite a 4-2 win over Watford on May 11, 2016
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