RICARDO CARVALHO has confronted the prospect of next week's Champions League final being a last hurrah for key members of the Chelsea squad by admitting he anticipates a summer of changes at Stamford Bridge and that he is unclear whether he will remain at the club.
Avram Grant has already bolstered the squad for next season with the €20 million signing of Jose Bosingwa from Porto, a deal completed this week, with the Portuguese international right-back due to link up with his new team-mates when the squad reconvenes before a summer tour of China, Malaysia and Russia in July.
The manager anticipates several more arrivals by then, backed as he is by Roman Abramovich in the transfer market, in readiness of an assault on the Premier League title next season.
It remains to be seen, though, whether Carvalho and Didier Drogba will remain at the club as there is uncertainty over their futures. The Portuguese, 30 on Sunday, is contracted until 2012 after signing a five-year extension about 12 months ago, yet he may seek to follow Jose Mourinho when the former Chelsea manager returns to work, most likely in Italy, this summer.
When asked whether he would remain at Stamford Bridge, Carvalho said: "I don't know yet. I do have a contract." Just as intriguingly, the centre-half is braced for a summer of upheaval. "You have to be prepared because when it's like this, someone goes, someone stays, someone comes in," he added.
Carvalho, who has recovered from a back injury sustained at Newcastle and, like the captain John Terry, will feature in Moscow next Wednesday, has been outstanding all season. He has been arguably Chelsea's most consistent defender and the club are intent on retaining his services. The same would apply to Drogba, despite the Ivorian's frequent outbursts suggesting he will be moving, and Frank Lampard whose representative will return to the negotiating table at the end of the campaign to discuss a new contract.
Grant declined to comment on the futures of Drogba or Lampard or on the arrival of Bosingwa, when questioned at the club's pre-Champions League gathering this week. "I will speak about this after the final," he said. "But I can assure you Chelsea will continue to be a good team, even next year."
Carvalho won the Champions League with Porto under Mourinho and will seek to impart his experience to his team-mates ahead of his second appearance in the showpiece event, aware that expectation levels are considerably higher at his current club. "Back then nobody expected us to win the Champions League," he said. "Now everyone says Chelsea have to win the competition. We have big players here and it is important for us to win it now.
"We have bigger players here than Porto had, for sure. Having not won the Premiership, we have to get hold of a Champions League medal now. We are a strong and a compact team and every season I think we get stronger. I hope we can show those qualities now."
Chelsea's squad includes Juliano Belletti, who has scored the winner in a Champions League final - for Barcelona against Arsenal two years ago - and Ashley Cole, who featured for Arsenal in Paris in what proved to be his final game for the club, hoping to erase the memory of that night next Wednesday.
"I can say I've played in a European Cup final but I don't want the same situation as last time," said the England full-back.
"Now I have a chance to make amends for that and get a winner's medal."
