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Our board has come in for a lot of criticism over this. It looks to be a case of damned if they do and damned if they don't with some supporters. We had clearly been given great encouragement from the Lambert camp to pursue him but maybe he's used it to get what he wants from Norwich.
He's gone now. He's not coming and today the big speculation surrounds Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe, the second youngest manager in the Football League. He's done an incredible job on the Dorset coast in very difficult circumstances and they currently lie second in League One behind Brighton.
More than once he was a player target for Stan Ternent at Burnley and he's now very much in demand with both Crystal Palace and Charlton keen to make him their new manager.
Officially, Burnley released a statement last night, from chairman Barry Kilby, which read:
I would tonight (Saturday) like to stress to supporters that Paul Lambert (Norwich City manager) was only one of a number of targets we would like to interview for the post of Burnley manager.
There are other targets, but someone had to be the first and Paul was already in employment, so we acted through the proper channels and made a formal enquiry to speak to Paul.
Obviously this was refused and we respect Paul and Norwich's decision and now we move on to the other persons on the shortlist. There were half a dozen names on our shortlist and the task starts again tomorrow morning.
I do think the situation need to be resolved as quickly as we can, but we cannot let that be the overriding factor. It is about appointing the right man for the job to take this club forward.
My belief is the club remain confident of appointing a new manager during the next week ahead of our home game against Queens Park Rangers.