Werder Bremen's director of sport Thomas Eichin has confirmed that coach Viktor Skripnik will still be in charge of the club next season.
Bremen avoided relegation to the second division thanks to an 87th-minute goal by Papy Djilobodji on the final day of the season, which earned them a 1-0 win over Eintracht Frankfurt and saw them climb out of the bottom three.
Skripnik's future was in doubt but Eichin says he remains convinced the 46-year-old -- who guided Bremen to 10 points from a possible 15 since losing 2-1 at home to Augsburg in mid-April -- is the right man for the job.
"After the Augsburg game, we had a relatively big discussion about the coach and we had to find answers," Eichin told Sport1 television.
"We then decided, with the board, that we wanted to continue along a difficult path with Skripnik.
"That difficult path has not ended today and we want to proceed along it with Viktor Skripnik."
The Ukraine-born coach thanked Eichin for his faith and says the pair will analyse everything in the coming days.
"It's great and I'm pleased," Skripnik said. "We've still got to go through what was good and what was bad together, and what our intentions are.
"I've been here in Bremen for 20 years now and I'm not going to resign after a year like this."