Jobs axe will fall as costs are cut

Job cuts are being made by Norwich City in the wake of relegation, the club confirmed today.

Redundancies in non-football departments were one of the consequences of a loss of Championship status, new chief executive David McNally admitted.

McNally said the Canaries had to find every extra penny for manager Bryan Gunn to rebuild the first team squad and added: "There are some really tough decisions being made internally to that end."

City's last annual report, to May 2008, showed they had 70 football staff and 134 employees in other departments.

McNally, who took up his new post on Monday, did not specify the numbers of jobs being shed or in exactly which areas. "It is fair to say a redundancy process had begun a number of weeks ago. That is under way and it doesn't really get much tougher than that. We would have liked to have avoided that if we could, but we just don't have as much money as we did, given the league we are now playing in. So it doesn't get much tougher than that and we're working our way through that."

As for numbers, he said: "I don't have the exact state of play in terms of where we are. There are consultative periods and processes that have to be followed and we are robust in ensuring that we are following them to the letter and we shall continue to do that. If it's one, it's one we'd prefer not to have to go through, so any case is hard, particularly at a club like Norwich which is such a family orientated club and team spirit among colleagues within the business is so good."

McNally said all City's energy must be devoted to success on the field.

"The fact is, like many businesses, there are plenty of other things we'd like to do to try to develop here and develop there," he said. "Lots of those things will have to be put on hold because every spare penny needs to be focused on the first team budget."