NORWICH City chief executive David McNally has branded Burnley 'unprofessional' for making their approach for Paul Lambert public - insisting their boss would never have joined 'a much smaller club'.

The Clarets announced late on Thursday night that they had made an official approach for Lambert, but Norwich responded little more than a hour later with a statement saying permission had been refused.

Lambert was reluctant to answer questions about the approach at a press conference on Friday morning, saying only that he was happy with the statement Norwich had made.

Speculation was only ended once and for all when Lambert put out a new statement on Friday night confirming he had no intention of leaving Carrow Road.

Official approaches are often not made public, with clubs sometimes agreeing to secrecy, and both Norwich and many onlookers have questioned why Burnley opted to publish the news on their website.

McNally, who insisted Norwich had not promised Lambert a new contract or extra transfer funds to keep him at the club, said: "We had an official approach from Burnley on Thursday evening.

"It was out of office hours and I was called back in.

"I was alerted to the fax at about 9.30pm, so I came and had a look at it.

"We are a non-trading plc and there are other board directors that I need to make aware of any significant event, and clearly I had to make Paul aware too.

"I was going through the process of doing that but then I was alerted that Burnley - for some bizarre, very difficult to explain, reason - had decided to put it on their website that they had asked to speak to Paul about their vacancy.

"That really was unusual, unexpected and I have to say unprofessional of them.

"It meant that we had to get something out to say we would absolutely make certain that Paul Lambert stayed as manager of Norwich City.

"He was certainly not going to Burnley. There was no question of that.

"We would fight tooth and nail if Barcelona requested permission to speak to Paul Lambert, so he was never ever going to a much smaller club than ours."

In the wake of Friday's events, Norwich went out of the FA Cup after losing 1-0 at home to Leyton Orient on Saturday.

But Lambert insisted after the game that he had never contemplated leaving the club.

The Scot says he felt he had made his position clear at Friday morning's press conference and says he only decided to put out a statement that evening after television reporters approached his car as he attempted to leave work for the day.

"I think people put two and two together and came up with about 250," said Lambert.

"I was always happy here and have been since day one.

"The statement on Friday (morning) for me was good enough for me to say I'm happy, but it all escalated for some strange reason. Just listen to what I say.

"The statement was there and I was never going to go.

"I said what I said (on Friday evening) because I don't want camera people trying to get into my car, which I thought was rude and unacceptable.

"So I had to come out and say it."