Manchester City have today announced a deal to extend manager Manuel Pellegrini's contract for a year - so it'll expire in the summer of 2017 as opposed to the end of the 2015/16 campaign. The Chilean has been the talk of the town for a few months with his future seemingly uncertain, having not won any silverware since his opening year with the sky Blues.
Last term, City managed to finish in a respectable second place - eight points behind eventual winners Chelsea, despite having endured a rather inconsistent run at times with plenty of injuries to key players and unpredictable performances all-round from the majority of their players.
Key injuries and a lack of form hurt City last term
This will give them hope going into the new season, where they are up against West Brom at the Hawthorns; Tony Pulis' men managed to comfortably see off the Blues towards the back-end of 2014-15 with a 3-0 victory.
The club's chiefs have opted to show their confidence in the boss, and the new contract extension will no doubt give Manuel and his men a much-needed boost ahead of the season's curtain raiser on Monday evening.
Hungry for success this time around
After penning a new one-year deal, he stated that he's "proud to manage" the club, and therefore "very pleased to have agreed this contract", despite rumours suggesting he'd be set to leave at the end of the campaign with current Bayern Munich boss Pep Guardiola being readied as his replacement in the blue half of Manchester.
He also said that he has a "very good quality group" of players to work with, both on-and-off the field within "all levels of the club" itself. The Citizens have high expectations for themselves and will be targeting some form of success both in the league and Europe - which is unsurprising given the talent at Pellegrini's disposal.
Lastly, he reaffirmed the fact he's "focussed on the coming season", as well as being "confident" in the fact that the team and himself will "respond to the constant support shown to us by everyone" - including the "fantastic fans".