Villa boss Paul Lambert to talk about forgotten trio's future

The claret and blues chief reiterated Darren Bent does not have a Villa future but is due to return after his loan spell at Fulham ends in the summer.

Villa's record £24m signing Bent has a year left on his £65,000-a-week contract after joining from Sunderland in 2011.

He is joined by Alan Hutton and Shay Given in being surplus to requirements and collectively the trio will cost Villa over £150,000-a-week in wages – or around £7.8m a year.

Hutton is on loan at Bolton while Given returned to Villa Park after his loan spell at Middlesbrough ended in February.

And Lambert insisted he will talk to Lerner at the end of the season to discuss the situation.

"I think the money and the wages will be a conversation I have with Randy at the end," said Lambert.

"When it's all finished and done and dusted I'm pretty sure him and I will sit down somewhere and discuss what's going to happen."

Bent is ineligible to play tomorrow under the terms of his loan at Fulham and Christian Benteke's long-term Achilles injury has not thrown him a Villa lifeline.

He has scored six goals in 28 games for Fulham but was left out of their 3-1 defeat to Everton despite claiming he was fully fit.

And when asked about Bent's Villa future Lambert confirmed he will not force his way back.

"No, the club's moved on," Lambert said.

"Darren has not really played for me for two years. Obviously he's been on loan at Fulham, here we've had Christian's form and that's football. Whatever happens at the end of the season will happen."

Lambert said Fulham did not have an option-to-buy Bent built into his season-long loan.

"No, he comes back. If they want to buy Darren it's an avenue they can go through, so we'll just wait and see," he added.