Werder coach Skripnik agrees three-year deal

BERLIN (Reuters) - Werder Bremen coach Viktor Skripnik, who took over last month, has signed a three-year deal after making a good start in his bid to haul the club out of trouble. Skripnik, who played for the team from 1996-2004, replaced the sacked Robin Dutt with Werder bottom of the league. The 2004 champions have won two out of three Bundesliga matches under the Ukrainian, who previously coached the club's youth teams, to climb one place in the table. "We want to get away from the relegation battle as quickly as possible and develop the team," Skripnik said in a statement on Thursday. Assistant coach Torsten Frings, a former Germany international, has also signed a deal that will keep him at the club until 2017. (Reporting by Karolos Grohmann, editing by Tony Jimenez)