Alex Neil breaks cover.

[morty]

http://www.pinkun.com/norwich-city/alex-neil-regrets-not-shifting-on-norwich-city-s-old-timers-1-4980580

 

[Fenway Frank]

Interesting piece, I like the fact that there's no bitterness on his part

 

[morty]

I always liked the guy, and recognised that the issues weren't just with him, that there were issues with structure in the club, and also I completely agree with him in that there should have been more of a clear out post relegation. But poor contracting decisions cost us, making it impossible to move players on.

I think he'll be back, and I think he'll do well.

 

[Din]

Interesting read. A bit weird that Delia herself wasn't present when he was sacked and he had to specifically ask to speak to her. The shortcomings that Neil points out about not clearing the squad a bit more in the summer were undoubted mistakes, however as a young manager you'd now expect him to learn from that and take those learnt lessons into future jobs. Thing is though if that was his only failure at the club he'd probably still be here, as regardless of the fact that we do have some deadwood knocking around, the squad itself when playing at it's best is easily good enough to be at the top of the table, as we witnessed against Reading a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately his tactical shortcomings and the fact that he clearly had favourites who would often stay in the side even when performing poorly (Naismith, McGovern, Martin, Jacob), combined with a couple of other things, is the reason for our, and his, very disappointment showing this season, eventually leading to his sacking. By no means was all the fault his, but he was rightfully dismissed in the end.

I have no ill-feelings towards him as a Norwich fan. He gave me two of the best days of my football supporting life in the play off games against both Ipswich at home and Middlesbrough. In fact the whole 2nd half of the 14/15 season was a brilliant period, as good if not better than anything we saw under Lambert. Unfortunately in the end it just didn't work out. I wish him all the best, and hope we get to hear more from him in the future about his time here.

 

[GJP]

I don't find him overly likeable. 

Never doing better than Norwich.

 

[Canaryboy]

“The one thing I probably blame myself for was in the summer I re-signed all the players to get us back up, because they had got us up in the past"

Even Alex Neil is scapegoating Steven Whittaker then, he's the only one he gave a new contract to after relegation!

 

[hogesar]

I always liked the guy, and recognised that the issues weren't just with him, that there were issues with structure in the club, and also I completely agree with him in that there should have been more of a clear out post relegation. But poor contracting decisions cost us, making it impossible to move players on.

I think he'll be back, and I think he'll do well.

To be fair it sounds as if he could have moved some on but decided himself not to.

That was probably his downfall which is a little ironic as 99% of fans were happy to see us hold onto our players too.

I imagine AN will have to jump at the opportunity for a League One club but to be fair he's still young so has time on his side.

 

[Din]

Full interview with Neil here. Starts about 21:50, where he talks about his playing career and his managerial time at Hamilton, he starts talking us at 32:40, and it goes on from there for 20-25 minutes.He also talks about his plans for the future. Really interesting interview.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p050glh3