Ivan Rakitic in no rush over contract talks with Sevilla

Sevilla playmaker Ivan Rakitic has admitted that he is in no rush to discuss terms over a new contract with the La Liga side, although his agent - who is also his brother - will open talks soon.

Rakitic said that the money he is offered is less important than assurances that the club can begin to challenge for the top four once more.

"Very soon my brother is going to come here and we will sit down again to see if we can say anything more," Rakitic told Diario de Sevilla. "We are getting closer, but I'm not in a hurry as I still have a year and a half left and there's nothing to worry about. We are both working towards the same thing, we're both happy with each other and we'll see what happens.

"The club's budget is not the same as it was five years ago, I understand this, I do not want nor could I get up to what Frederic Kanoute and Alvaro Negredo were earning as that was a different time.

"The most important thing is the sporting side, we may have lost ground on fourth place, but personally I am calm because the Levante game was a game we'd only lose once in a hundred times. The group is working very well, we have put in an enormous amount of work and the most important thing is to play in Europe."

Sevilla are currently seventh in La Liga.