Paul Lambert tasked with building a team he may never get to manage.

Following crisis talks in New York, Randy Lerner is hanging a "Business As Usual" sign under the For Sale sign at Aston Villa, leaving Paul Lambert and Paul Faulkner to limp on through the summer, with their own positions hanging in the balance.

If Lerner does manage to sell the club, the likelihood is that new owners will want their own man in place as Chief Executive, while - unless they are completely barmy - they will definitely want to shake things up radically on the coaching side.

The current turmoil goes even deeper than the finances and the first team squad with the head of Villa's academy Bryan Jones stepping down in August, it seems there is no facet of the club not facing some degree of disruption.

Having splurged a large chunk of last year's transfer kitty on players that rarely got near the first team and couldn't even command a regular place on the bench, Paul Lambert will have to show that he has learnt from those mistakes if he is to improve the squad. He is unlikely to have the cash or the wage structure to bring in marquee signings so will have to do canny deals on Bosmans (there are plenty available if he can negotiate on salary) and take risks on homegrown youth to turn things around.

Whatever sort of squad Lambert is able to pull together though, that still doesn't address the coaching, with Villa's players seeming to go backwards, making basic technical errors while as a team they more often than not seemed tactically inept last year, with the attacking play rarely a patch on that shown in Lambert's first season and nowhere near the pass and move style that he was praised for at Norwich.

With such an air of uncertainty hanging over the club, it'll take major powers of persuasion to convince half decent players to get on board, especially when they see the way solid pros like Shay Given have been treated.

With Lerner desperately trying to lurch for the exit door, he may well feel that continuing with Lambert was his only credible short term option and will point to average crowds of 36,000 as evidence that Villa's loyal support will put up with any old rubbish.