MANCHESTER -- Manuel Pellegrini has said Manchester City should try to keep Patrick Vieira at the club.
Vieira, who is currently in charge of City's Elite Development Squad, is out of contract in the summer and is a reported target for Marseille if current boss Marcelo Bielsa leaves his job.
The former France international, who finished his playing career at City before becoming their Football Development Executive, has ambitions to move into management himself and has been tipped as a possible successor to Pellegrini.
The former Arsenal captain has impressed with City's under-21 team and took them to the quarterfinals of the Champions League, and he is not ruling out a job in Ligue 1.
Pellegrini said in a news conference on Friday: "Patrick is doing very good work here. He must decide his future. Patrick is working well and is very important here."
The City boss also said he was surprised that Sergio Aguero, who is the 21-goal top scorer in the Premier League, was omitted from the PFA Team of the Year.
Diego Costa and Harry Kane were the strikers who got the most votes from their peers and Pellegrini said: "It is very difficult for me to analyse. I always say that Kun [Aguero] is a very important player and for our team he is the player who scores more goals in the Premier League but I don't know who decides that."
Pellegrini said that, even if outsiders have not recognised his contribution, Aguero is valued at the Etihad Stadium.
"Kun demonstrates every game what he can do," he said. "He had a lot of games injured this season but despite that he continues being the most scoring player."
Managers' relationships with the media have come under the microscope this week after Leicester's Nigel Pearson branded a journalist "an ostrich."
Pellegrini is famously calm in his news conferences and said he took a conscious decision to keep his cool when he took up coaching.
"It is the most difficult thing to do as a manager," he said. "For me one of the most difficult things was to change my character, to try and be cool and understand that every journalist can understand what he wants, with respect of course, and the managers can answer what they want with respect.
"Maybe as a younger manager I don't control so much my character. Now I can do it because the years help me."