Philadelphia Phillies manager, Charlie Manuel, is entering the final season of his contract in 2011 and his agent, is optimistic that he will receive a contract extension before opening day according to Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com.

“Charlie wants it and I know the Phillies do,” Pat Rooney said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “We should be able to get something done.”

Back in September, Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr. said that he expected Manuel to manage the team beyond the 2011 season. Salisbury says that hammering out a contract extension was one of the team’s tasks for this off-season.

When Manuel as asked about his future as a manager back in October, he was game to continue his career for a long time:

“I could see myself managing at 85. Pennsylvania is known to have old coaches and managers. What the [heck]? … I don’t go nowhere. I go home and I come to the ballpark. I go home and I come to the ballpark. I go home, come to the ballpark, airplane, go on the airplane, go to the hotel. That’s all I do.”

Conversations between the two sides have moved slowly because the team was busy signing Cliff Lee and upgrading their bullpen, but in recent days the team focused their efforts towards Manuel.

Rooney said he was not frustrated by the pace of negotiations.

“Not at all,” he said. “We’re really just starting to get going on it. We haven’t had much discussion, really. We got an offer a while back and we responded this week. We’re moving along. We’d like to get an extension hopefully by the end of spring training. Charlie doesn’t want it to drag into the season. Hopefully we’ll get something done sooner rather than later.”

Salisbury says that Manuel is likely looking for a two-year extension on the $4 million per year range. The 67-year old veteran led the Phillies to two consecutives World Series in 2008 and 2009, winning the 2008 edition against the Tampa Bay Rays.