SAN DIEGO -- San Diego Chargers president Dean Spanos didn't feel he had to issue any ultimatums when he made the unpopular decision to bring back coach Norv Turner and general manager A.J. Smith despite the team missing the playoffs for the second straight season.

"Everybody knows in this business that you've got to win. OK?" Spanos said Tuesday. "That's the net bottom line. You don't have to say that."

The Chargers haven't been winning enough lately, which is why Spanos was forced to decide the future of his top football men. The Chargers are 17-16 since the end of the 2009 season, including an embarrassing home playoff loss to the New York Jets in January 2010 that was the Chargers' last postseason appearance.

San Diego went 4-1 at the beginning and end of this season but was undone by a six-game losing streak in the middle. One more win would have earned the Chargers (8-8) the title in the mediocre AFC West.

Feeling that he has a good team with a marquee quarterback in Philip Rivers, "Keeping this intact gives us the best chance to win and change this thing as quickly as possible," Spanos said.

Spanos said he was heartened by the players' response to Turner in winning four of five down the stretch. The one loss, though, a rout at Detroit, eliminated the Bolts from playoff contention.

"I was confident that I had a good chance to stay here," said Turner, who has two years left on his contract, at $3 million a season.

Turner has a 49-31 regular-season record in five years in San Diego but is only 3-3 in the playoffs.

"I would expect we'd have to make the playoffs" to stay employed, Turner said. "If we manage things right and have some good fortune, I imagine we will."

Turner was an unpopular hire in February 2007 after Marty Schottenheimer was fired following a 14-2 season and a home playoff pratfall against New England.

When the news came that Turner would be back for a sixth season, fans reacted angrily on radio talk shows and the Internet. Some threatened to cancel their season tickets.

"Obviously, I'm very sensitive to what the fans have to say," Spanos said. "I've come to the conclusion that I can talk until I'm blue in the face that this is the right thing to do. But until we go out and win and change the course of where this team has been heading, get back into the playoffs and make a serious run for the Super Bowl, anything short of that isn't going to change their minds. We have to go out there next year and win."