Norwich City's immediate priority is finding permanent chief executive

As Norwich City prepares for a return to the Championship, the Canaries are focused on finding a permanent chief executive rather than appointing a new manager.

Despite Norwich's 4-2 victory over Watford at Carrow Road on Wednesday, the Canaries were relegated from the Premier League by virtue of Sunderland's 3-0 win versus Everton, which kicked off simultaneously and confirmed that Alex Neil's side is the only newly promoted club that won't be back in the top flight of English football next season.

Related - Sunderland survives again: Black Cats win to relegate Norwich, Newcastle

Whether or not Neil goes down with Norwich, however, remains to be seen. The Scottish manager, who was hired by the Canaries in January 2015, said after the club's relegation that "there's discussions to be had" with its owners, Delia Smith and Michael Wynn-Jones.

Meanwhile, Norwich is looking for a successor to David McNally, who resigned as the Canaries' chief executive following the club's loss to Manchester United on Saturday. The search is an "immediate priority."

From Norwich's official website:

With last night's results confirming our relegation from the Barclays Premier League, the Norwich City Board of Directors and everybody at the Club shares the pain and disappointment of our supporters.

We are proud of our team's battling and spirited display in the 4-2 win over Watford in our final home game of the season. We were immensely proud and humbled as well by the passionate support our manager Alex Neil, his staff and the players received from the fans, throughout the game and after the final whistle.

However, as a Club, our number one objective this season was always to retain our Premier League status. We have fallen short of that target and work is already underway to learn from the mistakes that contributed to our failure this season.

The immediate priority, as stated earlier in the week, is to recruit a new permanent Chief Executive to lead the Club.

Norwich's victory over Watford was only its third in 17 fixtures.