Daniel Farke apologised to Norwich City’s fans after the Canaries’ Premier League relegation was confirmed following a 4-0 home defeat to West Ham.

City look on course to finish rock bottom after a seventh consecutive league defeat.

“I feel sorry, really sorry, for our fans and everyone connected to this club we were not able to perform another miracle,” he said. “I am in a responsible role and I am disappointed I could not work another miracle. I feel sorry for the supporters.

“They are there with so much passion for this club, even in the bad times. They deserve all the joy we can bring them.

“It is a disappointing day. The day where relegation is finally confirmed. It is not like it comes to us unexpected or we were unprepared for it. But it still hurts.

“We are always self-critical. The first step is to ask yourself what you could do better.

“I said from day one maybe we had a 5pc chance of staying up without spending money. Look at the team sheet for this game and it was more or less our Championship line up without some key players like Christoph Zimmermann and Grant Hanley.

“To be able to be successful it is not realistic. I was fully committed to this way because it was important for the mid to long term.

“With all respect to my players on this level, this season, at times it has looked like men against boys. We needed to be at our best to get results. We tried to over-achieve in enough games but the odds were against us.

“It was too tough to work this miracle so we have to accept this relegation.”