Daniel Farke is not enjoying proving the doubters wrong, despite leading Norwich City back to the Premier League.

The Canaries’ head coach now wants a second title at this level, ahead of today’s Championship trip to QPR, but his top target is already achieved.

Sporting director Stuart Webber publicly backed Farke, following City’s abject relegation from the top flight last summer, and the German has delivered.

“It's not like my motivation was to prove people wrong,” he said. “The only motivation was to keep going and to keep doing what we believed in. Of course we would have preferred to stay in the Premier League but all the odds were really against us.

"I would love to have spent £5m or £10m on a striker and break the bank but it was more important to deal with the financial issues. It might have been possible to spend £10m on a defender or a striker, and that would have made my life easier, but I couldn’t be selfish.

“This is why we said at the time we needed a miracle even before we had all those injuries to our defence. Once we had some momentum then we had the lockdown period and for a newly-promoted side to play without our supporters at home, the odds were a bit too big for us.

"But I still feel we did a lot for our reputation, we had some great nights, a great FA Cup run, beating Manchester City and Leicester and getting lots of praise. We knew that we took the right decision as a club, especially for the mid- to long-term future.”

Farke admits second time around feels even more of an achievement, after shouldering the expectation and empty stadiums for all bar a few pilot events due to the pandemic.

“The first promotion is probably a bigger one because it gave us the chance to grow quicker as a club,” he said. “It allowed us to sort out the issues financially, to invest in the infrastructure of the academy, and to sort out the contracts of our key players. We used that season in a smart way.

"Now we are in a healthy situation but the first one was more important for the development of the club.

“The second one was more difficult, to swim against the tide and turn the mentality from losing games to a title winning mentality, to accept the label you are the favourite and every opponent is highly motivated. I am perhaps a bit more proud of this achievement. It is probably close to my best achievement. This feels sweeter.”