'I accept Norwich fans' criticism' - Knapper

Ben Knapper joined Norwich from Arsenal in October 2023

Norwich City sporting director Ben Knapper has admitted he is "not delivering" in his role at the moment, with the Canaries next to bottom of the Championship.

The club appointed Philippe Clement as head coach on Tuesday following the sacking of Liam Manning, who managed to pick up only nine points from their first 15 league games of the season.

Knapper led the recruitment process which identified former Rangers boss Clement as the best candidate, despite protests from supporters calling on him to follow Manning out of the exit door.

An online petition was begun on 11 November under the heading 'Remove Ben Knapper as Norwich City sporting director' and, as of Wednesday, it had more than 1,500 signatories.

"We're clearly not where we want to be right now, I understand why my judgement then gets called into question," he told BBC Radio Norfolk in an exclusive interview.

"Everybody is entitled to their view and I get it, we're 23rd in the Championship - for a club of this stature, and with the ambition we have, it's unacceptable and that's on me.

"I'm not delivering at the moment and I take full responsibility for that. It's not nice, but I'm in this job and I accept everything that comes with it. I would never hold that against any of the fans, they are entitled to voice their frustration."

After parting company with Johannes Hoff Thorup towards the end of last season, Knapper persuaded Manning to leave Bristol City, after steering the Robins to the play-offs, and move to the city of his birth.

But disastrous home form undermined their hopes of success this season - they have yet to pick up a single point at Carrow Road.

"I wanted to give Liam as much time as possible - in the summer we felt he was the right appointment, he ticked a lot of boxes," said Knapper.

"We don't want to be a club that chops and changes head coach all the time. We want to find a consistent way of working. We hung on as long as we could but ultimately the results spoke for themselves."

Despite criticism of Norwich's buying and selling of players, Knapper insisted the club had done "a lot of good things" in the summer transfer window - and that he had no regrets about selling Marcelino Nunez, who "did not want to stay", to East Anglia rivals Ipswich for £10m.

Knapper continued: "We've leaned hard into a recruitment strategy that is more focused around signing young players, a lot from overseas markets, that have got potential but we know they're not the finished article and that process takes time.

"When we've done that on such a scale, perhaps that's something I underestimated, but I don't think we've seen some of those players consistently on the pitch."

Knapper said the number of injuries in the squad was a major concern and finding solutions to alleviate that problem was part of the reason for Clement's appointment.

"He is incredibly knowledgeable when it comes to the physical preparation of teams," Knapper explained.

Money is available to strengthen the squad in January and Knapper acknowledged that providing Clement with a squad capable of achieving better results could have a big impact on his own future.

"I'm under no illusions about my situation here, and where we are - we need to arrest the situation quickly and climb up the table and Philippe is exactly the kind of head coach that can help us do that," he said.

"Of course it's a big decision but I think it's a really good outcome to a process and for us to attract a coach of that calibre, of that prominence, of that experience in our situation right now speaks volumes."