Ernesto Valverde has agreed a one-year contract extension with Athletic Bilbao.
Valverde, who is in his third stint as Athletic coach, was coming to the end of his existing deal at the end of this season.
The former Barcelona coach returned to San Mames last June and enjoyed a strong start to the campaign.
Athletic were level on points with fourth-placed Atletico Madrid in LaLiga heading into the World Cup break, although they were winless in five following the resumption of the season.
Back-to-back victories have set Athletic back on course, however, and Valverde will now continue to lead the team until the end of next season.
Ernesto Valverde signs contract extension.
The head coach, in his third spell in charge at Athletic, will stay in…
Sadio Mane would have won the Ballon d Or if he was European or Brazilian, according to the Liverpool forward s Senegal team-mate Cheikhou Kouyate.
Mane came fourth in the final standings with 347 votes from the panel of world football journalists, behind winner Lionel Messi (686 votes) of Barcelona, Liverpool team-mate Virgil van Dijk (679) and Juventus forward Cristiano Ronaldo (476).
As well as helping his team to Champions League glory in June, Mane has continually excelled in domestic action for the Premier League s runaway leaders and Kouyate, who was part of the Palace team that lost 2-1 to Mane s Liverpool in November, suggested the 27-year-old was overlooked due to an anti-African bias.
For me this Ballon d Or is for Sadio Mane, there is no doubt about…
AC Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani has told La Gazzetta dello Sport that Arsenal s asking price for striker Emmanuel Adebayor remains too expensive to consider an approach.
On Friday Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger let the San Siro club know that he was prepared to discuss the possibility of the Togo striker moving from north London to northern Italy.
However, Galliani feels that the requested fee of 28 million euros remains too high for a club that will not have Champions League income to look forward to in the 2008-09-season.
We ve stopped dealing with Wenger and have to reconfirm that up to now Milan has above all important sacrifices to make in negotiations with its current players, starting with Kaka, he said.
The paper does though suggest t…
Competition: EFL Cup
Market: Chelsea to beat Arsenal
Odds:
The EFL Cup semi-final second-legs take place this week with four teams vying for the first piece of silverware this season. Both games have remained incredibly tight with any of the four sides still possessing hopes of going through to the final. With all of this in mind, Arsenal host Chelsea on Wednesday.
Arsenal have been able to arrest a slump in form of late and they are back on track in the league. After 24 games they have won 12, drawn six and lost six, scoring 45 goals and conceding 31 times. In their last five they have won twice, drawn twice and lost once, which has seen them onto 42 points this season. With Tottenham dropping points in their last game, the Gunners have cut th…