Marcelo Bielsa has said he was touched by Marseille's owner asking him to continue at the club next season but added: "I won't reply clearly until I have a concrete proposition."

Bielsa was appointed at Marseille last summer, and has -- despite limited financial resources -- kept the club at the business end of the Ligue 1 table this season.

Their title challenge has faded in recent weeks, while they slipped out of the Champions League qualifying places with last weekend's defeat at Bordeaux.

However, Bielsa told media he has received the backing of Margarita Louis-Dreyfus -- the widow of Robert Louis-Dreyfus, who bought the club in 1996 -- and that the Russian-born businesswoman asking him to go beyond the expiry of his current contract in June.

"She told me that she would like me to continue," said Bielsa, whose side are fourth, one point behind Monaco. "She also told me something that I liked even more: that she appreciated my way of handling people. I give more value to that than anything else.

"To sum up my position, and to try and fit with what Margarita told me, when the season finishes, my contract ends. I don't know in which position the team will finish. I really hope it will be second or third. At that moment in time, all the cards will be played in terms of OM's future plans. It's not the same to do that with a coach who has achieved his objectives and with a coach who hasn't.

"I always respond to concrete things. That the owner of the club has told me 'I want to continue with you' is not the same as extending a contract which is expiring. I really value the owner's words. I won't reply clearly until I have a concrete proposition. It's a lot better if the owner does it after I have achieved my objectives."