Friday gossip from the club

The build-up to an FA Cup Final is all very well, but you are always looking for a couple of good newsy stories as well as the traditional fayre ... et voila! Merci beaucoup, Patrick Vieira.



City's French World Cup winner and all-round good guy (unless you're on the other team) comes to the rescue with a good old-fashioned bit of honesty about his future at the club.

As sportinglife.com puts it: "Patrick Vieira has no idea whether he will still be at Manchester City next season.

"The veteran Frenchman was a calming influence in the latter weeks of the Premier League season as City claimed a prized top-four slot and will be on the bench tomorrow as they look to end that 35-year wait for silverware by beating Stoke in the FA Cup final at Wembley.

"But beyond the final two games against Stoke and Bolton next week, Vieira does not know where his future lies. His contract at City expires this summer and the 34-year-old is not sure whether he will be staying."

They quote Patrick: "I really don't know, anything can happen. I just want to enjoy the cup final.

"I am really proud of what we have achieved over the last few days. If I am part of it next season I will be happy and excited, if not I will be grateful to have been involved."

There's also been a kerfuffle over hotels, it seems, with both clubs aiming to stay at the same one and thinking they had a provisional booking. City will be there, but whoever had won that tussle, it would be a story as well.

Don't believe us? Here's Stuart James on guardian.co.uk: "Stoke City and Manchester City have been caught up in hotel row on the eve of the FA Cup final that has forced the Midlands club to find alternative accommodation." See?

Stu continues: "Tony Pulis and his Stoke players believed they would be staying in the Grove Hotel in Hertfordshire after a provisional booking was made in March but City have flexed their muscles and managed to get into the five-star resort ahead of them.

"Both clubs used the Grove Hotel ahead of their semi-finals, which were played in the middle of April, but Stoke made a provisional booking for the final after they beat West Ham in the last eight of the competition."

Fear not for Stoke's comfort, however. They won't be roughing it at Fawlty Towers. They're staying at a five-star golf resort on the outskirts of London, reports the Guardian man.

He adds: "A spokesperson for Manchester City said: 'We were staying in the Grove on the Friday night before the semi-final. I understand we had also provisionally booked for the final in advance, and within an hour of the final whistle of the semi, we had booked the majority of the hotel out for the final.'

"A spokesperson for the Grove Hotel said both clubs had requested to stay there ahead of the FA Cup final but that a contract had not been agreed with Stoke. When asked whether a contract was required to secure a hotel booking, the spokesperson said: 'You do if you're booking half a hotel.'

Nice pay-off line, Stuart. A lot better than this one.