Jose Mourinho Believes Veteran Trio Will be at Chelsea Next Season

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho believes Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard and John Terry will all still be at the club next season.

The veteran trio are out of contract this summer and Cole was reduced to tears as he saluted the crowd following the Blues' last game home game of the season against Norwich City last Sunday.

Both Cole, 33, and Lampard, 35, have lost their places in the Chelsea starting line-up this term and although Terry's partnership with Gary Cahill has been crucial to their season, the imminent arrival of Kurt Zouma casts doubt on his future.

However, when asked if he believes the trio will part ways this summer, Mourinho told a press conference: "I don't know, but I don't think so."

Chelsea travel to relegated Cardiff City on the final day of the season having already bettered their points tally from last season. Mourinho has persistently maintained throughout the campaign that he has not expected his side to win the Premier League and spoke positively of the progress his side has made over the campaign.

"There was evolution in every competitive aspect," Mourinho said, London 24 report. "Last year we were out of the title race by November and when Man United were champions the distance was around 20 points.

"After that we reduced it a bit, but we were always a huge distance to the top of the table. This season we fought until it was mathematically impossible, which was the previous game, two fixtures from the end of the championship.

"We couldn't go through the group phase of the Champions League in the previous season and we were relegated to the Europa League, and this season we went the semi-finals and fought, nnot until the last minute of the second leg, but we had started that game in good conditions to reach the final.

"So from a competitive aspect it was an evolution. Some of the players had that experience of fighting for the title for the first time, and fighting for the Champions League, playing knock-out phase, quarter-final and semi-final."

Mourinho added that Lampard, Terry and Eto'o are all doubts for Sunday's game.