Jose Mourinho has indicated he expects all of Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard and John Terry to stay at Stamford Bridge, despite the fact none of the three have yet signed new contracts with Chelsea.
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Speculation only grew after Cole's display of emotion following the final home match of the season, the 0-0 draw with Norwich City.
When asked if Sunday's match against Cardiff City would be their last chance to play for the club, Mourinho responded: "I don't know, but I don't think so."
The Portuguese will, however, have significant influence on whether Chelsea decide to keep the trio.
He added: "I always do, because it's the way I like to do and I think things have to be done... I always do my reports to the club, written reports, official reports from the manager to the board. I do that during the season, and with a final report at the end of the season where I try to have my point of view, my analysis on every aspect of the season, and every aspect of the club relating to the first-team.
"The club knows my opinion, the players know my opinion too. So I can't say much more."
As regards players coming in, Mourinho reiterated that Chelsea would look to sign a high-profile striker -- expected to be Atletico Madrid's Diego Costa -- but that may see one of the current three forwards leave.
He said: "The striker is something we've been speaking about for a long time, even with you. In December and January, when you were asking me and trying to understand why we were not bringing a striker in during the market, I was clear the way we were answering. It's something the club and myself were working in, that we were preparing the long-term future and not just an immediate solution to try and help us for the rest of the season.
"The same way we bought two players in January who were ineligible in the CL, we said no problem. We were preparing the team for the long-term. The striker is something that is normal. We are going to bring a striker in. That's normal, to want to improve. We have good players, we're not desperate, but it's the normal evolution of the team.
"Every team wants to improve in the summer transfer window, and one area where we want to improve is the strikers' position. We have three strikers at this moment: normally one is leaving, normally one is coming."
Finally, despite speculation on Lampard's future, Mourinho stated that the midfielder should eventually have a statue outside Stamford Bridge.
He said: "Not now, because he's too young... but maybe in a few years he'll have a statue where Peter Osgood is on the side. He's one of the biggest players for this club."