Ricardo Carvalho yesterday voiced a fear that is worrying many Chelsea fans by warning that the squad could break up after next week's Champions League final. The Portugal defender has already attracted strong interest from Real Madrid and is likely to be targeted by José Mourinho's next club, expected to be Inter Milan.

Carvalho is one of several Chelsea players who will be in demand this summer, along with Didier Drogba, while the club are steeling themselves for contract talks with four players and are willing to offload up to half a dozen more.

Frank Lampard and Michael Ballack are at the front of the queue for new contracts, as they have only one year remaining on their existing deals and Petr Cech and Wayne Bridge also want improved terms. The likes of Tal Ben-Haim, Steve Sidwell, Claudio Pizarro, Juliano Belletti, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Andriy Shevchenko will all be sold if suitable offers are received. Shevchenko's situation is the most problematic, as no club is willing pay a transfer fee or match his wages, and Chelsea may have partially to fund his salary if he is to return on loan to AC Milan.

Carvalho is prepared to listen to offers despite having three years remaining on a contract signed only last season and is expecting several departures irrespective of the result in Moscow. “You have to be prepared for the team to disperse, because when it's like that, someone goes, someone stays, someone comes,” he said. “I don't know yet whether I'll stay, but I have a contract.”

He is hoping that the sense of uncertainty will spur Chelsea on to what would be an historic win at the Luzhniki Stadium on Wednesday. The 29-year-old is one of six Chelsea players to have already won the Champions League, but accepts that they are under more pressure than when he lifted the trophy with FC Porto under Mourinho, the former Chelsea manager, four years ago.

“I don't know what will happen, but it's good here,” Carvalho said. “Everyone has known each other for a long time and we enjoy each others' company. Every season I think we get stronger. We have a strong team and a compact team, so I hope that in this last game we can show those qualities, play well and show our experience.

“Back then at Porto nobody was expecting us to win the Champions League. Now everyone says Chelsea has to win the Champions League. We have big players here - and it is important for us to win it now.”

Ashley Cole's experiences of the Champions League final are less positive, with the left back hoping to make up for the disappointment of Arsenal's 2-1 defeat by Barcelona in Paris two years ago, in which Belletti, now his Chelsea team-mate, scored the winning goal.

“I don't want the same situation as last time,” the England defender said. “No one remembers the losers. We want to go there and hopefully pick up that trophy.

“Before the [2006 final] no one expected [Arsenal] to win as there were a lot of young players, but we went 1-0 up and it should have been 2-0. We had a man sent off and, of course, Belletti comes along and scores, which I hear about all the time.”