Steve Bruce is set for a very busy few weeks as Aston Villa manager as the club's financial situation moves closer to getting resolved.

Owner Tony Xia has been negotiating about bringing fresh investment to the club and whilst that should provide more stability, the boss is still going to have to wheel and deal in the market.

Key players such as Jack Grealish, James Chester and Jonathan Kodjia are set to depart, although Bruce will be restricted in terms of the funds he can reinvest.

The club would ideally like to keep those players and move on some on the fringes, but the reality is Villa have a lot of players commanding big wages that they wouldn't get elsewhere.

Therefore, if no buyers come in Bruce will be tasked with bringing those players back into the fold and hoping they rediscover their best form.

Here, we look at THREE Villa players who still don't know where their futures lie ahead of the new season...

The experienced defender has not been a favourite of Bruce's over the years and was loaned out at the start of the year.

However, John Terry has left the club, Axel Tuanzebe is back at Manchester United and Chester could leave too, which will leave Villa very short at centre-back.

Given that, Elphick may get a chance to impress.

He's shown he can play at this level over the years and will hope to take this unlikely opportunity if Bruce gives him a chance.

The former Basel man is another who has been on the fringes but he did impress in the past six months.

He has been linked with a move away, but Bjarnason could become a key part of this new-look Villa side and has the ability to be a good player in the Championship.

There's no way that Villa are going to recoup the £12m they paid for the striker, so do they take a big loss or persevere with Hogan?

He hasn't done enough since arriving in the West Midlands, but the talent is there and if he could rediscover his Brentford form he's a quality option.