ROMAIN Vincelot is in talks over a new City deal, the Telegraph & Argus understands.

Discussions are believed to be well advanced with the skipper, who is entering the final season of his current contract.

Scunthorpe have been monitoring the situation with the 31-year-old Frenchman but Vincelot has made it clear that he is very keen to stay at Valley Parade.

Vincelot started 51 games last term – the most of any City player – proving himself a very effective centre half, where he read the play well, to go with his usual role in central midfield.

He is expected to return to the City line-up for this afternoon's home friendly with Championship outfit Sunderland after missing the midweek action with a stiff ankle. But Timothee Dieng may sit it out again because of a problem with his calf.

Bantams boss Stuart McCall said: "Tim got a kick on it in training on Monday and carried on. That's just lingering about a little bit longer.

"We'll look at him but there's no suggestion it's a tear. It was a collision. He might have had a little bleed in the dead leg, so we're just going to monitor him, but hopefully it's nothing too sinister.

"Romain is fine. It was just we'd had a tough session on Tuesday for those not playing against Guiseley and his ankle stiffened up because of the hard ground.

"Rather than taking any chances, we decided not to play him (at Eccleshill) but he came in Thursday and trained again without any problem."

McCall is looking forward to seeing how his squad will adapt against an opposition who have just been relegated from the Premier League.

City were beaten 4-1 at home by Burnley on the corresponding weekend last year but McCall felt the team benefited from that.

He said: "It's definitely a step-up in class. We got a bit of a lesson last year against Burnley – and it was a valuable one. We took a lot out of that. Sometimes it's not about the result but what you learn from it.

"We know we're up against a better team. It will be a good experience for the new lads to be at home for the first time.

"Obviously it's not going to be that busy but it's their first game at Valley Parade and they can get a feel for it.

"It's a competitive game and one where we can look at different things. We'll probably try two different ones on Saturday and Wednesday (against Newcastle) to explore all the alternatives we can have."

Former Leeds boss Simon Grayson took over from David Moyes at the Stadium of Light only three weeks ago.

Grayson is aiming to rebuild the squad after going down and is likely to run the rule over Dutch goalkeeper Robbin Ruiter at Valley Parade.

Ruiter, formerly with Utrecht, has joined on trial as Sunderland look to replace former Bantams loanee Jordan Pickford and Vito Mannone.

McCall said: "I know Simon and Snods (Glynn Snodin) have got a decent track record as a management team and I'm sure they will do a good job there.

"There will be times when we won't have the ball a lot and it will be a working exercise for us.

"It's obviously going to be a useful work-out but we don't just want to be worked without the ball, we want to be good in possession.

"Last year we scored one against Burnley and could have had a couple more. They'd just bought Andre Gray for £9million and he looked particularly sharp – but we played some good stuff early on.

"We saw signs at Guiseley in the game and in the training camp that we've got good footballers. We want them to play the right way.

"We know we may not have possession for a long time but when we do, we need to make that count."