Paul Lambert has made a U-turn by opening the door to Darren Bent and Alan Hutton being reintegrated into Aston Villa’s first team while confirming that the midfieder Marc Albrighton has been released. The Villa manager, whose future remains in doubt because of the possibility of a takeover, said “everyone is on the same level playing field” when they report for pre-season.

Lambert’s previous position was to freeze out Bent and Hutton in the hope of selling them to reduce the wage bill. It is understood that Randy Lerner, the Villa owner, has encouraged Lambert to utilise both players during the final 12 months of their contracts. “Everybody’s even now, everybody’s level,” Lambert said. “It’s public knowledge what’s happened [in the past] and now everyone is on the same level playing field.”

Bent, Villa’s record signing when he joined from Sunderland in January 2011 for a fee rising to £24m, was loaned out to Fulham last season after being used sparingly by Lambert in the previous campaign. Hutton, who was signed by Alex McLeish in 2012, has not kicked a ball for Villa under Lambert and there was no indication that situation would change. “It will be unlikely he will ever play here, he knows that, but we need to get the [wage] structure down to a level,” Lambert said in February.

The manager is now taking a different view, perhaps mindful that there is no guarantee what transfer deals will go through if the club has not been sold this summer and, as a result, what sort of squad he will have at his disposal going into the new campaign. “The only uncertainty we’ve got, which is the main uncertainty, is how long before [the club’s] sold,” Lambert said.