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Aston Villa boss Paul Lambert confirms contract talks underway

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Boss Paul Lambert today insisted chairman Randy Lerner has bought into his Villa vision and confirmed contract talks have started.

The claret and blues chief has held tentative discussions over extending his deal, which expires next year.

Lambert has a close working relationship with Lerner and chief executive Paul Faulkner and believes owner Lerner shares his ideas for the club.

"If you have that vision, you need people seeing it and backing it and Randy has been fantastic with that," he said.

"He knows what's happened, and he knows the way we want to go, and as I said, he's backed it and been excellent.

"They see the vision and what's happened, and the work's going on behind the scenes, to have that vision of what you want to do."

But Lambert, who joined Villa from Norwich in 2012, is in no rush to secure his future and is instead focused on tomorrow's visit of West Ham.

And asked if there was any updates on the talks Lambert said: "Nothing really. The most important thing is the game on Saturday.

"I speak to Randy a lot and things like that will take care of itself. There's nothing major in it.

"I've another year after this anyway. I never look too far ahead. The discussions between me and the chairman will be the same as they've always been.

"It will be pleasant, with no problems either way whatsoever.

"They see the vision and what's happened, and the work's going on behind the scenes, to have that vision of what you want to do."

Villa host the Hammers tomorrow five points above Sam Allardyce's side who occupy the final relegation slot and Lambert acknowledged the magnitude of the clash.

"It's a massive game for us," he said.

"We are at home. We have been playing well of late. It's important to take that form into your next match.

"If we win this one, it will certainly give us that gap. There are that many teams down there. But we are sitting on top of that group.

"I think it will keep on fluctuating. But we have to keep ahead of everything.

"The main thing for me is that we are playing well.

"Everyone wrote us off last season and we were in a much worse position than this, that's for sure, but we managed to do it."