Frank Lampard last night provided some measure of consolation to Chelsea supporters by insisting that he wants to stay at the club and is confident of agreeing a new contract within the next few weeks. The England midfield player is a target for Inter Milan, who are ready to offer him a four-year deal worth £5.8million a year and whose president, Massimo Moratti, is claiming to be working directly on a transfer with Roman Abramovich, the Chelsea owner.

Lampard has one year remaining on his £115,000-a-week deal at Stamford Bridge and, in theory, can exploit a Uefa ruling to buy himself out of his contract and walk away as a free agent, though that loophole has never been tested at the highest level.

The 29-year-old has had other matters on his mind in recent weeks, mourning the death of his mother and preparing for the ultimately disappointing climax to Chelsea's season, but hopes to sit down with the club to finalise a new contract when he returns from England's friendly international in Trinidad in ten days' time.

Lampard's agent has been in discussions with Chelsea for more than two years and is hoping to achieve parity with John Terry for his client on £135,000 a week, with the club's most recent offer falling £10,000-a-week short. Lampard is in a strong negotiating position because there are few obvious replacements at any price, with no one available who could reasonably be expected to contribute 20 goals a season from midfield and match his remarkable workrate, particularly a foreign player in their first season in England.

“I think I will be back,” Lampard said. “I have got to talk to the club now. My contract has been the last thing on my mind in the past six weeks, obviously. But I will sit down with the club after the England games and talk to them and hope we can come to a conclusion. I am pretty confident we can. As I have said many times before and from the end of the game with the fans and meeting them in the hotel, the feeling and relationship I have with them will stay with me for ever, whatever happens.”

Lampard is confident that Chelsea can recover from the disappointment of losing their first Champions League final in such heartbreaking circumstances, but acknowledged that a summer of upheaval lies ahead, with Avram Grant, the first-team coach, one of many leading individuals likely to leave.

“Who knows what will happen with the club, that is up to the owners,” Lampard said. “But what is important is that the club moves forward despite what happens with any of the personnel. We have given everything this year and given everything in this final, but sometimes the strength of a club is that when you have that knock-back you come back from that.

“Even though we have come away with nothing this season, it has not been a failure. We have come an inch away from winning the Champions League and we pushed all of the way in the championship. It has been a difficult season, as the season before was, and now it is very important that Chelsea as a club realise what we have done and improve a bit more to get back to winning ways like when we won two titles in a row.”

Lampard also backed Terry to recover from the shattering blow of missing the penalty that would have won the Champions League, reflecting on his personal experience of missing in a shoot-out in England's World Cup quarter-final defeat by Portugal two years ago.

“I was trying to say to John then that it is a game of football, though it does not sound much consolation at the minute,” Lampard said. “I have been through that in the World Cup and I know how much it hurts. I know from being in that position that it does not go in a moment, but he will come back stronger.”