Damien Duff has decided to sign a new deal at Blackburn Rovers, ending speculation linking him with Liverpool and Manchester United. The Ireland winger is expected to sign a new deal in the next seven days.
"I'm very happy here," the 23-year-old was quoted as saying in today's Lancashire Evening Telegraph, after discussions with Rovers boss Graeme Souness.
"I think my game has improved no end in the past year working with the lads and the staff, so I'm definitely going to stay on and try and improve my game even further.
"I haven't prolonged it or anything, it's just that talks went on for that long and it didn't have that much to do with me. So when it's ready to sign, I'll sign it."
Duff, who travels with Ireland for a friendly against Finland on Wednesday, says he will sign the deal as soon as he returns to Britain.
"If it was there to sign on Friday I would have signed it. But at the moment it's just not quite ready so, hopefully, by the time I come back from international duty later this week everything will be sorted out," he said.
Duff said it would come as a relief to finally have his future settled after months of speculation.
"I'm still a young lad and all the speculation hasn't really been fair on me," he said.
"It's definitely affected me but all you can do is get your head down and work hard, which is what I've tried to do throughout it all.
"I felt tired last week against Lazio (in a friendly) and I thought that showed in my performance so I wasn't too happy at all.
"I think some of the fans thought I was in a mood or whatever and not happy at the club but it wasn't that at all, I just wasn't happy with my performance because I felt so jaded.
"However, I felt a lot better against Sunderland on Saturday so hopefully I can now carry that on for the rest of the season."