World and European champions Spain have tied down their most successful coach until at least the 2014 World Cup, writes EMMET MALONE

AS IF they hadn’t already had enough going for them, Spain will now head into the European Championships with a settled coach after Vicente Del Bosque confirmed on Spanish radio yesterday he had signed a contract extension that will, it is believed, keep him in his current position until at least the conclusion of the 2014 World Cup.

The 61-year-old’s deal with the Spanish federation had been due to run until the tail-end of the tournament in Poland and Ukraine. However, having overseen the country’s World Cup success in South Africa two years ago and taken his side through the qualifiers for the Euros without dropping a point, Del Bosque might well have been on the receiving end of some lucrative offers from major club sides for next season and so his current employers, who had previously offered a new two-year deal, have now successfully moved to tie him down.

It looks to be a good move for all concerned for the former Real Madrid coach, who says he will give David Villa as much time as possible to regain his fitness and Fernando Torres the same opportunity to rediscover his best form before deciding whether to bring them to Poland, is a popular figure amongst the players and continues to get the best out of a hugely talented squad.

He was, as it happens, the most successful Real coach of the modern era during his four-year stint in charge of the first team but was unceremoniously dumped by club president Florentino Perez in 2003, the day after seeing his side win the second league title of his four-year reign – they also won the Champions League twice during that time.

After an unsuccessful stint with Besiktas in Turkey, he succeeded the controversial Luis Aragones in the wake of the team’s Euro 2008 success and then promptly set about introducing new players and developing the present team’s fluent style.

“We didn’t create a style of play,” he said of his approach upon taking over, “but we maintained it in our training. You have to keep the potential that exists and forge ahead without erasing the fingerprints of the past.”

Now, his side will start this summer’s tournament as favourites to become the first nation to win three successive major international titles with, unsurprisingly, Real and Barcelona providing the backbone of the team.

Del Bosque clearly has confidence in the group’s ability to maintain their remarkable record of the last few years.

But the veteran coach, who likes to quote fables when discussing or providing instruction on the game – particularly the 14th century work the Tales of Count Lucanor – is invariably respectful towards opponents.

When asked recently about the teams Spain will face in the group stages of these championships, he said: “All of our opponents will be difficult.

“We respect all of them and they present different challenges. It is up to us to make sure we arrive into the tournament timing our form well and ready to play well from the off.

“Our group is very difficult. Everyone knows the threat Italy pose, Croatia are tricky opponents and Ireland have a strong personality, character and an excellent team regardless of the experience of their manager Giovanni Trapattoni.

“They will be a complicated team; we know how strong they are because of how well they got through their play-off.”

Still, there is a widespread sense that the group’s other three teams will be battling it out for the second spot for the competition’s quarter-finals.

The Spanish head to the event as both world and defending European Champions.

In South Africa they recovered from an opening game defeat by Switzerland – Del Bosque admitted at the time it was hard for his players to accept the defeat – to overcome the Dutch in the final; although their most impressive performance of the tournament was probably the comfortable defeat of a good German side in the semi-finals in Durban.

Though their qualifying group this time around was not the toughest – it included the Czech Republic, Scotland and Lithuania – they coasted through it, winning all eight games and scoring 26 goals while conceding just six.

The most encouraging aspect of the campaign for prospective opponents was that two of their three clean sheets were kept against Liechtenstein.

Their defeat by England at Wembley last November, as well as the 2-2 draw with Costa Rica that followed a few days later, also gave rise to suggestions that the team could, after all, be got.

However, Del Bosque and his men went same way towards silencing the (few) critics with a 6-0 win over Venezuela in February.

With Villa and Torres out, Valencia’s Roberto Soldado returned to international set-up after a few years on the sidelines and, having come on at half-time, scored a hat-trick.

Now, the coach has games against Serbia, South Korea and China to perfect their approach to the title defence before getting things under way against Italy and then the Republic of Ireland on June 10th and 14th respectively.