PHIL Brown is staying at Southend United.

The 61-year-old returned to Roots Hall for the final six games of last season.

But Brown has now agreed a longer team deal to remain with the Shrimpers.

“I’ve signed a two-year deal which is geared towards promotion and then it becomes a third year automatically, which I shook hands on and I’m going to back myself to do it,” said Brown.

“Hopefully I can get to 200 wins in that short space of time, and if that’s the case then certainly promotion is on the cards, if not back-to-back promotions.

“But let’s take one step at a time.”

Brown previously spent five years in charge of Blues and led the club to promotion via the League Two play-offs back in 2015.

And Brown is now planning to secure more success with the Shrimpers.

“We’ve got a squad to build,” said the Blues boss.

“I’ve had 20 individual conversations in the last two days and I’ve got another 10 today with players who are staying, players who are going, players who will be offered deals, players who are already under existing contracts who I want at the football club and players I don’t want at the football club.”

But Brown - whose first spell ended in January 2018 - is pleased to have already sorted his own future.

“To kill any uncertainty, to give clarity to everybody and show people which direction we are going in at this early stage is key,” said Brown.

“Everything has been agreed in principle and I’m a man of my honour, and I’m sure the chairman is too.

“As far as we’re concerned, we’ll go forward together but we need to move things on quickly and relegation is never a nice feeling.

“But I’m happy with what I’ve agreed and I’m happy with how the chairman wants to take the club forward.

"I think he’s had enough of losing, he’s had enough of back-to-back relegations and quite simply he wants to get it back to where it was when I left.

"That would be a great achievement if we could do that in the space of two or three years, so that’s the challenge for us

Blues have suffered back to back relegations and will be in the National League next season.