Patrick Vieira said it was a "disappointment" when Arsene Wenger did not ask him to take on a role at Arsenal when he retired as a player but denied he has ambitions to succeed Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini any time soon.
Vieira, 38, has been working at City since he hung up his boots in 2011, and was appointed the club's reserve-team coach in 2013.
Though City were his final club as a player, Vieira is far more closely associated with Arsenal, where he helped the Gunners to three Premier League titles during a nine-year stay between 1996 and 2005.
However, the former France international, who was one of Wenger's first signings when he joined Arsenal, revealed his ex-boss had not given him the opportunity -- unlike teammate Thierry Henry -- to return to the club.
"Everywhere I go, people say that to me," he told L'Equipe Magazine. "It was out of the question for me to put myself forward. Why would I have done?
"When I stopped playing, I had an offer from City, and I didn't get a call from Arsene. If he had wanted me to work with him, he would have asked me. It was a disappointment for me, both from the club but also Arsene. I gave a lot to Arsenal, and the club and Arsene gave me a lot too."
Vieira has seen former international teammates Didier Deschamps, Willy Sagnol, Laurent Blanc and Zinedine Zidane all move into the dug-out successfully since the end of their playing careers.
The man who captained Arsenal's unbeaten "Invincibles" to the Premier League title in 2003-04 aims to follow them, though he denied he was in line to succeed City's first-team boss, Pellegrini.
"There is a manager in place so I am not asking myself that question," Vieira, whose contract expires this summer, said. "I will soon talk to my bosses. Our relationship is excellent, and I feel very good at the club. Why not continue to flourish with the youth team?"
Vieira's name has been linked in recent days to Marseille where Marcelo Bielsa's future is in doubt, both due to the Argentine's ambiguous statements regarding his position and the club's poor recent form, which has seen them slip out of the reckoning for a Champions League place.
He said: "I don't say 'No' to France. There are a lot of great players in France. I love Marco Verratti, the best player in Ligue 1 by far. There's also Nabil Fekir, who's really very good. Actually, I have asked Jean-Michel Aulas if I can go to Lyon to learn about their youth academy policy. In fact, I have not set myself a place nor an age: 38, 45... It doesn't matter."
The former Juventus and Inter Milan man added: "If an interesting project comes up tomorrow, I will study it carefully while also talking to the people at City, with whom I have a transparent relationship. The condition is the solidity of the project and the people -- the presidents especially -- who are leading it, as well as the quality of the structures. I will not go into something if I risk finding myself all alone if things don't go well."