Norwich City midfielder Alex Tettey believes he would be basking in the sun as a Premier League player by now if Alex Neil had been manager for the entire season.
Instead, former Hamilton Accies boss Neil who has overseen 16 wins in 24 games since his January appointment as successor to Neil Adams and Tettey are preparing for tomorrow’s £120m Championship Play-off Final at Wembley.
Tettey said: “I think he has been brilliant, the way he approaches games. If we had him for the whole season, I’d be in Dubai or Barbados, in the sun resting, instead of playing at Wembley.”
Asked if that means Tettey believes the Canaries would have secured automatic promotion with Neil in charge from August, he added: “Definitely.”
As it was, Neil’s men finished three points behind Watford, who secured the second automatic promotion place behind Bournemouth.
Norway midfielder Tettey, who is at the end of his third season at Carrow Road, is aware the stakes are high.
“I haven’t played in a play-off game before. For me, it will be like being in the World Cup and being in the Final,” he said.
“In our minds and the gaffer’s mind, he knows it’s a big game. The biggest game the club has had in a while.
“And he’s treating it as a huge game. There is no second game.
“It’s just one game and that will take us to where we want to be.”
Having beaten East Anglia rivals Ipswich in the play-off semi-finals, Tettey believes Norwich can cope with the pressure of the situation.
“We have had pressure playing against Ipswich, so I don’t think the pressure is higher than that,” he said.
“We’re ourselves. The lads haven’t changed, it’s just a feeling knowing we’re going to play at Wembley. It’s just excitement, not pressure.”
Middlesbrough have tried to say Norwich are favourites, but the Canaries think Aitor Karanka’s men are, having won both games between the sides this season by an aggregate of 5-0.
“They are the favourites because they have won two games against us,” said Tettey.
“We are slightly underdogs. That will suit us.
“For some reason, we have lost two games against them. We haven’t performed as we should normally.
“It’s about time we perform at our best and see where that will take us.”
Boro boss Karanka has revealed chairman Steve Gibson gave him the belief to overcome early self-doubt in his Riverside reign.
After suffering three defeats and picking up only four points from his first five games in charge, a pep talk from Gibson was pivotal.
Karanka said: “We talked, but neither of us could think it would come so quickly. I didn’t have experience as a manager, and the club was not in a good run.
“So it’s amazing, in 18 months, to go from two points above relegation to a play-off final at Wembley. It’s thanks to Steve.
“When we lost at home to Brighton 17 months ago, the first one who said to me: ‘Don’t worry, keep going, I trust you’, was Steve Gibson.
“I’ve felt since my first meeting with him that this was the right place for me.
“Everyone in the town and in the area loves the club. They’ve been waiting for this. They can go to Wembley again.’’
Ironically, Karanka’s only visit to Wembley was for an FA disciplinary hearing last December to face an improper conduct charge!
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