Soccer:Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish has been rewarded for reviving the team's fortunes with a three-year contract after the Scot took over from Roy Hodgson in January in a caretaker capacity when Liverpool were 12th in the standings, four points above the relegation zone.
They have climbed to fifth going into the final two games of the season and have a strong chance of qualifying for the Europa League.
Steve Clarke, Dalglish's first appointment, has also agreed a three-year contract as first-team coach.
"It's a great reward for the work that's been done, not just by me but Steve (Clarke), Sammy (Lee), the players and the people on the terraces and everyone else inside the club, including the owners," Dalglish told the club's website
(www.liverpool.tv).
"We said at the outset if we stick together and work together then it makes it easier to produce better results and I think that is the main reason why results have improved."
The club's director of football Damien Comolli said: "We didn't really look elsewhere because Kenny turned things around very quickly, with the help of Steve Clarke. For us, it was a no brainer.
"He hit the ground running from day one knowing what he wanted to do because he knew the boys anyway, especially the key players like Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher, and knew the young players in the Academy."
KENNY DALGLISH FACTFILE — THE LIVERPOOL YEARS
1977: August 10— Joins Liverpool from Celtic in a British record €500,000 deal.
August 13— Makes Liverpool debut in Charity Shield encounter with Manchester United.
August 20— Scores first Liverpool goal after just seven minutes of league debut against Middlesbrough at Ayresome Park.
August 23— Nets on Anfield debut as the Reds beat Newcastle 2-0.
1978: Tops the club's goalscoring chart at the end of first full season with Liverpool, his one-in-two ratio bringing 31 goals in 62 appearances.
May 10— Scores the winning goal in the European Cup final against FC Brugge at Wembley.
1979: Dalglish is awarded the Football Writers' Player of the Year award as Liverpool wrap up the First Division championship.
1980: Wins second league title with Liverpool.
1981: Liverpool win the League Cup, but the big prize comes as the Reds clinch the third European Cup of the Bob Paisley era.
1982:Liverpool claim another league title and a second successive League Cup win.
1983:A third League Cup triumph is capped by securing back-to-back league titles. Dalglish's contribution is recognised as he wins both main player of the year awards.
1984:Now playing under Joe Fagan, Dalglish is again inspirational as Liverpool clinch a famous treble, lifting the European Cup, league title and League Cup.
1985: May 29— Hours before the ill-fated European Cup final against Juventus at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels, Fagan announced he would retire at the end of the season, leaving Dalglish to step up to a player/manager role.
1986: With English clubs banned from Europe in the wake of the Heysel disaster, Dalglish secured a league and FA Cup double, scoring the goal which won the First Division crown.
1987: Liverpool finish the 1986-87 season without any of the major domestic prizes.
1988: Dalglish signs Peter Beardsley, John Barnes and John Aldridge and his new-look side win a second title under his tenure as player-manager.
1989: April 15— Dalglish endures his darkest hour as Liverpool manager when 96 fans of the club die in a crush at Hillsborough ahead of the FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest.
May 20— Just five weeks after the events of Hillsborough, Dalglish leads Liverpool to an emotional 3-2 win over Everton in the FA Cup final at Wembley.
1990: May 1— Makes his final appearance for the club at the age of 38, coming on as a second-half substitute in Liverpool's last home game of the season against Derby, by which time the Reds were league champions for the third time under Dalglish and for the 18th time in total. He retired with a record of 172 goals in 515 first-team games for the club.
1991: February 22— Dalglish ends his long association with Liverpool as he stands down as manager on health grounds.
2009: July 3— Dalglish is appointed to a senior role at the Liverpool academy and is also to act as a club ambassador.
2010: June— Asked to help find Rafael Benitez's successor and is linked with the job himself. Roy Hogdson is eventually appointed.
2011: January 8— Following Hodgson's departure, Dalglish takes charge of Liverpool until the end of the season.
May 12— Signs a three-year deal to remain at Anfield.
