Stuart Webber never considered walking away from Norwich City but has hit out at the abuse directed towards him.

The Canaries’ sporting director opened up on the personal toll following a second Premier League relegation and a 13th placed finish in the Championship.

Webber was targeted by sections of the Carrow Road support in the final two home games of a dire league season.

Here is a transcript of what he had to say on the topic in a wide-ranging interview on Friday afternoon.

We’ve got to make a difference between criticism and abuse. So criticism all day, we deserve criticism, even when we do well. We’ve had times where we’ve done really well but still been some really bad decisions. Why waste money on Felix Passlack the season we got promoted when we had Max Aarons? That’d be a super fair criticism.

Where I do have an issue is around abuse. And I think unfortunately, as a society, we’re getting caught up in what abuse is okay. Darren Moore got horrifically abused after Sheffield Wednesday got beaten in the first leg. I bet the same people are now sending him kissing emojis. That’s not okay.

People like myself get massively abused, just a white guy who is 39, and it is not a headline. It is almost it comes with the territory. If you can’t handle it, get out. I have a problem with that. If that’s what we’re teaching is okay and the media are feeding that is okay that’s a massive problem.

It can’t be, ‘You abuse a woman, but you can’t abuse that guy. Or you can’t abuse a black guy, but you can abuse that white guy’. That’s not okay, abuse is wrong. And no one should have to be subjected to that.

I’ve done nothing at this football club for six years which warranted me getting abused. I’ve done loads to earn criticism, absolutely loads. If you can’t handle criticism in this job then you definitely need to do something else. Because you’re going to get criticised more than you’re going to get patted on the back.

If we win the league, that’s down to the players and the coach. If we get relegated it’s down to the sporting director. Those are the rules you sign up to and I am completely cool with that. But the abuse bit is something I’m strong about. I have friends who say to me, ‘Be careful saying that in public’. No, no, I will say that in public because somebody has to because, unfortunately, in society, we’ve decided what abuse is okay. I’m not having that.

I said this to the police when I had a bit of grief at the end of the Premier League season. And they had it all on body cam, what happened to me that day, and I got an apology from them. And I said it’s interesting, because if I was stood outside the supermarket over the road abusing the manager of that supermarket would you come and arrest me? But because I work in football, that’s okay. I said that I can’t have that.

I said there’s going to be a big problem if I have that level of abuse again in my face because I’m going to have to give it back. Because I just don’t think that’s okay. Criticism. Absolutely. Singing for me to get sacked is not abuse. That is an opinion. To be honest, I don’t blame them. From what we served up the last 11 games I felt like singing it myself, but the personal abuse bit that’s not okay.

You know the cowards who shout when they’re 30 yards away when you’re with your son. I’m not accepting that, but in terms of walking away, I definitely wouldn’t walk away because of cowards.

I’ll either get sacked at some point, or I’ll walk away when it’s the right time for me to walk away. It definitely won’t because of a few cowards who think they can try and bully you because I got bullied at school. And from that day I was taught how to stand up to them. And that’s why I’ll talk publicly about it because these people aren’t going to win. Absolutely no chance, not about affecting me as a person.

But to come back to do I understand the frustration? Absolutely. Absolutely. They have a right to be frustrated. People spend a lot of money to come here. Society is a tough place at the minute and football should be their release. It’s an entertainment industry, it should be the best place to go. That’s on us to deliver that.

And if we don’t, we deserve criticism, but not the abuse bit. Some of the stuff our players have had. That shouldn’t be okay, because he’s privileged and gets good money to play football. He’s still a human. He still got a mum at home or a sick child at home. It’s not okay.

Being accountable

I’m never afraid of standing up and taking accountability. People in my role don’t talk, you know, and you’ll probably have that one day. I’ll be gone from here. And you’ll ask for an interview and there’ll be like, ‘No, he doesn’t do interviews’. At least the old fella used to stand up and front up.

We haven’t delivered on the pitch. And we’re trying to find a way to do that. But also, I’m not going to sit here, for the benefit of all of our staff and players who work incredibly hard to make this football club the best it can be, and act as if everything we’ve done has also gone wrong, because that is not a fact.

The fact of the matter is this football club has continued to grow even in the last two years. Have we reached our ultimate aim which was to get back to the Premier League? No, we haven’t but I would hope everyone can see to stay in the Premier League is incredibly difficult. Unless you have huge financial help.

Look at Southampton, they have three points more than we did last season and they spent £143m net. Our record signing is still Timm Klose.

Talk about Brighton and Brentford, and rightly so, but Brighton’s owner has invested more than £700m. Brentford is over £150m, and that was the last set of accounts so it is going to be more now.

We’re also trying to achieve what we’re trying to achieve against the backdrop of ‘they should have done this, they should have done that’. Hindsight is wonderful. We were close this year. We finished six points off the play-offs. Was it good enough? Absolutely not. Bang there’s your headline? Absolutely not.

But the fact of the matter is I am not going to beat up on all the staff here internally. Have we built stronger to make better next year as an organisation? Yes. We have a thriving academy and there is a lot of good work going on.