Daniel Farke reveals he turned down lucrative offers to remain with Norwich

Daniel Farke admits rock-bottom Norwich need a “miracle” to pull off a Premier League great escape but insists he does not regret turning down lucrative offers to leave the club.

The Canaries are seven points adrift of safety with just six games to go and appear doomed to an immediate return to the Sky Bet Championship.

City manager Farke says he could have quit Carrow Road to earn more money elsewhere after enhancing his own reputation by masterminding last season’s unexpected promotion.

Daniel Farke led Norwich to the Sky Bet Championship title last season
Daniel Farke led Norwich to the Sky Bet Championship title last season

Despite accepting relegation is now almost inevitable, the German is adamant that remaining loyal was the correct decision.

“I have more values than just thinking selfishly about my career, about winning titles, about money,” said Farke, whose side host Brighton on Saturday.

“If I’m honest, it’s not a secret that before the season, during the season, I turned several offers down and I could have made my life easier with more money, and spending more money, and fighting on a different level with other approaches and other possibilities.

“But my feeling was it was totally the right decision to go this way to help this club because I have too much love for this club and also too much love for the people here.

“We have to accept that it’s not the miracle outcome but we still have the small chance for a miracle outcome (survival) and as long as we have the chance we keep going.

  • July 4: Brighton (h)

  • July 7: Watford (a)

  • July 11: West Ham (h)

  • July 15: Chelsea (a)

  • July 18: Burnley (h)

  • July 26: Man City (a)

“One of my biggest values is loyalty and I’m totally convinced that I’m at the right place.

“I also got the feeling that I owe this club that much and I can’t be selfish and think, ‘it could be a difficult season, I don’t want to get the stick if it doesn’t work out’.”

Norwich were thrashed 4-0 at Arsenal in midweek as their slim survival hopes were further diminished.

City have managed just one goal in their last eight top-flight matches, picking up only four points from the 24 on offer in that time.

Former Borussia Dortmund reserve-team coach Farke felt his side had a five per cent chance of top-flight survival at the start of a difficult campaign, which has been blighted by injuries and hindered by a lack of spending in the transfer market .

The goal-shy Canaries have won only five league games all season and, according to their manager, must double that tally to defy the odds.

“From the first game when the season started, I said if we could stay in this league it would be an even bigger miracle in comparison to our unexpected promotion,” said Farke.

“I would say even before the season started, we had perhaps a five per cent chance to stay in this league.

“Once we look a bit back on our season properly, no other club was hit so much with injured key players.

“We don’t complain about this because if you have a five per cent chance, in 19 of 20 cases you will get relegated.

“We know that many, many things were against us this season and it’s still, at the moment, not realistic to speak about we will stay in this league because after 32 game days we have won five and right now we have to win five out of the last six.

“It’s not the moment to speak about any big messages. It’s more like let’s concentrate on what we can deliver and what we can deliver is performances.

“We can’t bake results, we can’t bake five wins out of six but we can do is deliver performances and that’s our only focus.”

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