Paul Lambert wants to heavily invest in players for next season[GETTY]Villa nudged a point close to safety in the Premier League with this draw and Lerner is waiting until the end of the season before putting a price on the sale.
There have been no talks with any interested parties and no deal is imminent but Lerner will reveal his plans at the end of the season.
Villa are currently five points clear of relegation and need another win for total safety and whether they are in the Premier League will affect Lerner's asking price.
His total ownership has cost Lerner upwards of £400million, a hefty hole in the pocket for even an American billionaire like him.
There has been growing speculation about people in the USA ready to buy Villa but that is not the case and a sale could take months rather than weeks.
Lerner, 52, said: "As regards my personal role at the club and the steady rumours of a sale, I will address these after the season."
It is significant that Lerner, who rarely comments publicly, has not said he is still committed to the club.
Although he regularly goes to Villa Park and the training ground to meet staff, Lerner does not go to games anymore and is spending more time with his family in New York.
Randy Lerner is seemingly unwilling to invest a great deal on players [GETTY]As regards my personal role at the club and the steady rumours of a sale, I will address these after the season
"Paul Lambert [manager], Paul Faulkner [chief executive] and I speak daily and remain committed to the immediate job of limiting distraction and confusion in order that Villa have the best chance possible of finishing on a strong note," said Lerner.
He is unwilling to finance Villa to a level where they can establish themselves in the top six, something achieved in Lerner's first three years of ownership.
Since then Lerner has ordered savage cut backs with Villa in their fourth successive relegation battle.
Lerner conceded that it has been hard.
"Following the point at Villa Park, there have been stories about my selling the club," he said.
"On a personal level, I had hoped the emphasis would have been on the amazing effort on the part of our manager and our players to regroup throughout a very difficult week.
"Injuries to Libor Kozak and Christian Benteke, compounded with the early loss of Jores Okore and the difficult rehab of Charles N'Zogbia, have no doubt left Paul Lambert with far less to work with than is fair.
"Still, Paul Lambert has done nothing but work within the parameters I've set, put the club first and continued to trust his players."
Lambert would have spoken to Lerner on Saturday night in their regular debrief.
Lerner said that the injury to Christian Benteke was extremely unfortunate [GETTY]Lambert wants investment in better quality players next season and that looks like a hefty bill Lerner is not prepared to pay.
Lambert wants the emphasis less about cheap bulk, more about quality, with £20m minimum available to buy two or three high-standard players.
The key is whether Lerner would pay the wages to go with that, something he has been slashing like a hedge cutter in the jungle
If Southampton had got the penalty for a Ryan Bertrand hand ball they deserved and the Saints had won, Villa Park would have erupted in anger.
Referee Lee Mason's error and goalkeeper Brad Guzan's save from Steven Davis kept the club from five successive defeats and off the edge of the cliff.
"The most important thing was that we had to get something from this game," said Lambert. "The lads were fabulous," which was an extreme overstatement.
Then, looking ahead, Lambert said: "We've done it for two years [cut back] and tried to keep this club in the league and to keep it going. But this club's far too big for what has happened to it - that's me being honest.
"If we work within the current parameters next season it'll be hard. The time for discussion will be the end of the season."
Lambert assumed those talks would be with Lerner, but that now seems unlikely.
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