Malaga coach Javi Gracia said he was happy to have ended speculation over his future as he agreed a new deal to keep him at the Spanish club until June 2019.
Gracia, a former coach of Villarreal B, Almeria and Osasuna, has impressed during his first two seasons in charge at Malaga -- especially in last season's 1-0 win at Barcelona and this year's draws in two meetings with Real Madrid and a 1-0 victory over Atletico Madrid.
Such achievements had led to some speculation that the Basque, 45, could be attracted elsewhere, with Sevilla, Real Betis and Valencia mentioned in some local press reports.
The one-time Athletic Bilbao player told a news conference that he had personally not spoken to any other clubs and was happy to be ending any talk of moving on by signing the new deal.
"Personally I have not received any offer," Gracia said. "My agents could maybe tell you better. I am renewing my contract due to the interest from the club, from [sporting director Francesc] Arnau, and because I do not want to be speculating about my future any more.
"We are going to play now against a series of teams my name has been linked with, and this is a way to show my gratitude to the club. I wanted to end all this speculation."
Malaga's Qatari owner Abdullah Al-Thani also welcomed the news on Twitter.
Congratulations
to Mr Javi Gracia
renewal contract
I wish you every success
You have my full support @MalagaCF pic.twitter.com/vndqZNSd1q- Abdullah N Al Thani (@ANAALThani) March 15, 2016
Asked if the objective was now to qualify Malaga for European competition, Gracia preferred to only look as far as Saturday's Andalucian derby at Betis.
"My objective is to beat Betis, that is the correct way to be ambitious," he said. "I do not believe that looking far ahead will help your day to day steps to be firm. We will go from day to day and then see what happens.
"We will be very ambitious here at the club. But we will keep on our path and see where it brings us."
Gracia has been publicly critical of Malaga's club hierarchy in the past, especially last summer when key players including Sergi Darder [Lyon] and Samu Castillejo [Villarreal] were sold, but he denied he had received any assurances over future transfer business before signing his extension.
"Everyone at the club is aware of the situation that has happened and we want to have the most stability possible looking to the future," he said. "That is more the realm of the sporting director and owners than that of the coach. It is not for me to put in conditions as we are all together in this."