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Birmingham - Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert has signed a new four-year contract that will keep him at Villa Park until June 2018, the Premier League club announced on Wednesday.
Lambert, 45, took over at Villa in 2012 and has guided the Midlands club to second place in the English top flight after four games of the new season.
"I'm determined that we continue building the club to where we all want it to be," Lambert said in comments published on Villa's official Twitter feed.
"This is a massive football club, a fantastic football club. We can look to the future with real optimism and a determination to make this season successful, and the seasons that follow."
A Scottish international midfielder during his playing days, Lambert won the Champions League with Borussia Dortmund in 1997 and went into management after hanging up his boots in 2005.
Following spells with Livingston, Wycombe Wanderers, Colchester United and Norwich City, he joined Villa in June 2012 after Alex McLeish was sacked.
Villa finished 15th in Lambert's first two seasons, avoiding relegation by five points on both occasions.
But they have made a positive start to the current campaign, winning 1-0 at Liverpool on Saturday in their most recent fixture.
"I am delighted that we have extended manager Paul Lambert's contract to the end of the 2017-18 season," said Villa's newly appointed chief executive Tom Fox.
"Paul and (owner) Randy (Lerner) had been in discussions regarding this move when I came on board and we concluded our agreement last week."
News of Lambert's new deal comes ahead of a daunting run of fixtures that will see Villa host Arsenal and defending champions Manchester City either side of an away game at Chelsea.
