Don't repeat Aston Villa's season from hell, Eric Black tells players

Villa caretaker boss Eric Black has told players to make sure they are never involved in a repeat of the club's season from hell.

The rock bottom claret and blues bow out of the Premier League at Arsenal on Sunday, after a nightmare campaign which has delivered just three league wins together with a host of off-field troubles.

Asked if he had given a final message to the players ahead of their top flight curtain call, Black said: "The only discussions I have had with them was to say, try to ensure you're never part of anything like this again, don't allow any standards to drop, and don't drop to other people's standards and have your career.

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"I know it's a team sport but you've got to be single-minded to have the best career you can possibly have in football and that was the only advice I gave them.

"It's about personal pride and your career. They have to learn from what's happened and don't allow it to ever happen again."

Villa's season has seen the exit of two managers in Tim Sherwood and Remi Garde, while Gabriel Agbonlahor, Joleon Lescott and Jack Grealish are among several players to have incurred the wrath of supporters for their off-field behaviour.

And it is set to end with the club in limbo, as ongoing takeover talks continue to hold up the appointment of a new manager.

Black, however, does not believe the uncertainty will last for much longer.

"I don't imagine this will drag on until the middle of July," he said.

"You can't say for sure, but in the next two or three weeks I would imagine we will know where we are."

With owner Randy Lerner desperate to sell, a Chinese consortium are thought to be in advanced talks over a £75 million sale, with Nigel Pearson the most likely candidate to become the club's new manager.

Black, who first joined the Villa in February as part of Garde's backroom staff, remains in the dark over his own future but is ready to accept whatever the next few weeks might bring.

"Would I like to be part of it? Yes I would," he said.

"It's a fantastic club but I'm old enough and grey enough to know that's not always the way it works so I will deal with what happens.

He continued: "Obviously being in limbo is not fantastic for anybody. It is going on and it has probably gone on because of the magnitude of the club.

"The owner wants the right money and the right kind of individual to take it forward.

"I think these processes are always difficult and the circumstances for the last six or seven weeks have been such that people every day have been waiting for an announcement.

"I think the right announcement will be made regarding the ownership and I'm sure after that the right people will be put in place.

"I think Aston Villa will come back, I really do. I am confident we will see a very strong Aston Villa next year and very soon they will be back in the Premier League."

Teenage defender Kevin Toner is meanwhile set to be offered a new contract by the club. The 19-year-old has featured in the last three Premier League games.