Norwich chairman Bowkett leaves Carrow Road

Ian Watson
Carrow Road Norwich City TEAMtalk

Norwich chairman Alan Bowkett has stepped down and left the board of directors, the Premier League club confirmed on Monday.

On Saturday the Canaries suffered a 2-0 defeat at Watford, which was a sixth in the last eight league games for Alex Neil’s side to leave them in 16th place, but out of the relegation zone only on goal difference.

Bowkett joined the Norwich board in 2009, and in a statement the Norfolk club – in which celebrity chef Delia Smith is the joint majority shareholder, alongside her husband, Michael Wynn Jones – confirmed they were hopeful of naming a new chairman shortly.

“The directors and all at Norwich City Football Club would like to place on record their thanks to Alan for his contribution,” Monday’s statement read.

“The club has been working recently to refresh the board of directors and an announcement about new directors and a new chairman will be made in the next few weeks.

“The ownership of the club will be unaffected by these changes.

“The new directors will bring additional expertise and fresh ideas about growing the business, as Norwich City continues its commitment to maintaining Premier League status and developing the football club on and off the pitch.”

Despite his team’s predicament, Neil remains confident the squad, promoted via the Championship play-off final at Wembley last May, has what it takes to stay in the top flight – with fixtures at home against Everton then away to both Manchester United and Tottenham next.

“We need to have a look at ourselves and get back to our standards,” said the 34-year-old former Hamilton player-manager.

”Anybody who is used to winning games and being successful – in the limited time that I have managed – it is a sore one to take.

”There is huge disappointment there, but it is how you respond and how you react that makes us the team that we want to become.”