Aston Villa's improvement under Tim Sherwood may yet convince defender Ron Vlaar to stay beyond the summer.
Vlaar, a target for Manchester United in the January transfer window until a knee injury forced the Old Trafford club to amend its shopping list, is out of contract at the end of June.
The Dutchman, 30, is now unlikely to join United as sights are shifted on landing Borussia Dortmund's Mats Hummels, which may leave Vlaar open to staying in the Midlands.
"Things have changed at the club so you never know," Vlaar told reporters after Villa's 2-1 FA Cup semifinal defeat of Liverpool continued the striking progress made under Sherwood, who was appointed in February to replace the sacked Paul Lambert. "This helps, you can trust me on that. I don't know anything about my future but to be part of this it feels so good."
Asked if the May 30 FA Cup final will be his last game with the club: "It could be, it's hard to say," Vlaar admitted. "I want to win it anyway, no matter what, for the team, for the fans, for myself. And then we will see what happens.
"It is still possible," continued Vlaar. "For me, things changed since a few a months ago, and when Sherwood took over.
"It's been a hard season for me with all the injuries," said Vlaar, who only made a full return from injury at the beginning of April. "I wanted to come back as soon as possible and fight and wanted to play and be important for the team."
When Sherwood took over, Villa had scored just 12 league goals in 25 games, but the new manager has Christian Benteke in particular firing, with nine strikes in seven matches, including Sunday's equaliser.
"I guess that's football," said Vlaar. "Things change. With a new manager coming we felt it was a new start.
"It's never good when someone has to go but it was a club decision and we have to accept that. It's felt like a fresh start since then. We started to play better and the results were better and the only thing that gives you confidence is winning games and this will gives us great confidence to go next week again. Let's enjoy the moment and then focus again on the league."
Villa, despite a recent upturn in form, are still in a battle for Premier League safety, and just four points clear of 18th-placed Leicester.
Meanwhile, the club is in its first FA Cup final since 2000, and ended Steven Gerrard's dream of ending his Liverpool career in the end-of-season showpiece. After Philippe Coutinho opened the scoring for Liverpool in the first half, Villa struck back quickly through Benteke, before captain Fabian Delph struck the winner and Villa's defence, with Vlaar at the fore, kept Brendan Rodgers' team comfortably at bay.
"I'm not from England so I don't think I recognise how big this is but this is massive," said Vlaar. "You could see the relief with the fans but also us on the pitch and the staff. It's great. We really deserved to go to the final.
"We showed character. The team spirit is really good. We scored the equaliser within a few minutes. It was a great goal, a great football goal, and going in at halftime I had a really good feeling. The second half, we didn't really get in trouble."