David Wagner: Under-pressure Norwich City head coach thanks Delia Smith for support
- Published
David Wagner's Norwich City side have taken only one point from their past six Championship matches
Norwich head coach David Wagner has thanked majority shareholders Delia Smith and Michael Wynn Jones for a supportive phone call.
Wagner is under pressure with the team 17th in the Championship, having taken one point from the past six games.
And he is expected to have a meeting with new sporting director Ben Knapper when he starts his role on Monday.
"Delia called me last week. It means a lot to me," the former Huddersfield Town boss told BBC Radio Norfolk.
"I've known from conversations with other people that I have the full support of the owners and the board, but I think Delia picked the phone up at the right moment, with Michael together, to have a longer chat.
"They see what problems we have to deal with and solve and, like everybody, she is not happy with recent results. "
Wagner continued: "To hear their opinions, why we are in the situation where we are, it's not only about them saying, 'We back you, we believe in you,' the most important thing for me in a conversation like this is that they see how I see the reasons we are in a situation like this.
"To be so clear, so smart, and diligent, it's just great to have owners like this."
Knapper, who has spent the past 13 years at Arsenal, will arrive to succeed Stuart Webber two weeks earlier than originally planned after the Canaries Trust supporters' group claimed there was a "state of inertia", external at the club while waiting for him to take up the role.
Smith and Wynn Jones will no longer be majority shareholders when American Mark Attanasio's purchase of a larger stake in the club is ratified, but an agreement is in place that they will stay in control of the day to day running of the club until at least January 2026.
Delia Smith (right) and husband Michael Wynn Jones became majority shareholders at Carrow Road in 1997
On Knapper's appointment, Wagner said: "I met him a couple of months ago and we had a long chat. I'm really looking forward to working with him, to support him, and help him settle in as quick as possible.
"We've spoken on the phone and it was good to hear he has a good view on the problems we have, and have to solve, and what went well at the beginning of the season."
Norwich are away to seventh-placed Cardiff City on Saturday, and looking for some sort of positive result to lift spirits ahead of the international break.
But Wagner insisted he did not see the game as make or break for his own position.
"No - it's not how I think and judge it because, at the end of the day, those are decisions I don't do," he said.
"I have to make decisions in training, how I pick the team and set up the gameplan. There is a moment when the players cross the white line, they have to execute it.
"At the end of the day, the players are the ones that win football matches."
He added: "It's frustrating for all of us. We have some further problems to solve after last weekend but it doesn't change that we go to Cardiff and aim to get some points on the board.
"In terms of the fighting and desire and hunger, we have to be on a better level than we were against Blackburn."