By DAN KARELL
The Frank Lampard saga at Manchester City is entering its eleventh hour as we speak, but for those who want a clue to whether or not he’ll start preseason with New York City FC, one only has to listen to Man City manager Manuel Pellegrini’s latest comments.
When asked whether extending Lampard’s loan could potentially upset the NYC FC brass, Pellegrini responded, “I don’t think so.”
“That’s why we have long conversations with all of them and I think that’s just one club,” Pellegrini continued. “I think that what’s better for the club (Man City) is better for all the clubs.”
Lampard became NYC FC’s second Designated Player when he signed with the club in late July. Just a week later, he was loaned to parent club Man City in order to keep up his fitness ahead of NYC FC’s inaugural season in MLS.
Since joining, Lampard has proven that he still has what it takes to compete in the English Premier League, albeit mainly off the bench, leading for Pellegrini to lobby for Lampard to extend his loan past December.
“I hope Frank’s situation will be resolved in the next (few) days,” Pellegrini said. “I said in the beginning it will be during December we are going to have the last decision. I repeat, Frank is very important for our team so I hope he will stay here.”
NYC FC head coach Jason Kreis recently admitted that he’d rather have Lampard available on the first day of preseason training. If Lampard extends his deal through the end of the EPL season or even through the end of February, he’ll be inching towards turning 37-years old, and his value for NYC FC could be more fleeting than anything.
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What do you think of these comments? Do you believe this is the final straw? Expect to see Lampard in an NYC FC uniform on opening day?
Share your thoughts below.
We need to get Beckham on the line and call his ass ASAP. By the way, why in the world wasn’t Becks in LA looking at Donovan play his last game, is he holding a grudge with Donovan.
He needed to be there to show support for MLS Miami team and MLS growth. Where was he!!!!!!!!! Where’s ronaldinho 🙂 !!!!!!!!!
Lampard will miss the first part of the season
This is a disaster
Somewhere in his moms basement, Nick Chavez weeps in his footie pajamas
Reyna could say something like “Frank Lampard is an excellent player playinging well. You’d have to be a fool not to want him on your team, Coach Pellegrini is no fool, and neither am I”
I hope he can make it to pre-season training. His participation is important for team chemistry.
The issue is mostly irrelevant unless the loan gets extended past the start of the MLS season. He can’t miss MLS games, especially the high-profile nationally televised Orlando opener. But a fully fit in-form Lampard from game one? Missing preseason would be a blip by April.
OMG…now Xavi is saying it would have been “shit” for him to have gone to NYCFC because he would have been transferred to ManCity and have to face his old club Barcelona. It just keeps getting worse and worse. there is all kinds of collateral damage with this Lampard thing. Big players are going to decide NOT to sign with NYCFC because they will only be loaned to ManCity proper against their will.
In an interview with the Spanish paper Sport, Xavi said: “You see, and I was nearly screwed because maybe I’d have faced the club [playing for Manchester City]. The truth is that now I realize it would have been shit for me to go. I’d have been happy where I went, but I’ve done well to stay.”
As an RSL fan I have listened to Kreis for some years. My impression is he looks at MLS and his job as the most important thing to him. I’d bet he sees man city as equals in terms of priority but pelligrini doesn’t. Kreis is used to having things done his way and if he gets dicked around by this club he will bolt for a better situation. Right now Orlando is looking like the classy new club and NYCFC is coming off as very amateur. They’re killing any good vibe they had with this lampard mess.
All this will smooth over once NYCFC kicks the first ball in their new stadium this year.
Heh, I see what ya did there.
“When asked whether extending Lampard’s loan could potentially upset the NYC FC brass, Pellegrini responded, ‘I don’t think so.’
“’That’s why we have long conversations with all of them and I think that’s just one club,’ Pellegrini continued. ‘I think that what’s better for the club (Man City) is better for all the clubs.'”
This pretty much eliminates any doubts about NYCFC’s status. They are a glorified reserve team with a twist — location in the biggest city in a largely untapped market for Man City stuff and TV broadcasts. Think of the team as a living, breathing TV commercial for Man City. People have accused RBNY of playing the same role for Red Bull, but they don’t have to compete for players with any top club.
Not that I entirely disagree, but you could spin that argument the other way just as easily, i.e. you could say that the Red Bull soccer family doesn’t have any top players like Villa or Lampard to farm out in the first place, so NYCFC actually has access to a “better” incremental player pool, given that they already have access to any player that NYRB would have access to in the open market.
But yes, it would seem the access to “hand me down” superstars may not be so clean and reliable as they had hoped or planned.
As an MLS fan, I’m not pleased about it, either. But I think it’s important not to be naive… MLS went into this with their eyes open…. they made the decision right at the time they were deciding to buy out Chivas. MLS is run by very intelligent, profit-driven people and they are very aware of the danger. I do not expect Garber will go to war over this incident alone, but I’d say you can be very confident that he has been whispering (if not shouting) in the NYCFC folks’ ears about the risk they are running here. If NYCFC keep Lampard, they had better have a d*mn good remedy to offer the fans. Chivas USA’s obliteration of their fanbase, as well as the Galaxy fans’ backlash over David Beckham’s European flirtations, demonstrate that MLS fans will voice their displeasure meaningfully if they are openly treated as second-class (even if most of us quitely accept that as reality, for the moment).
Anything the ownsership group does to damage the MLS brand amongst US fans, it also does to its own brands here in equal or greater measure. Maybe they will have to learn this the hard way in the beginning. Not ideal, but they are also far less likely to walk away or lose interest than Chivas. Capturing the US market is far more important to this ownership group than it ever was to Vergara, who scarecly paid a dime for his investment in the first place, and who realized quickly that his plan had little chance of success in the first place due to fundamental flaws in its design.
I think Garber’s infatuation with a team in NYC blinded him to many problems. He ended up agreeing to a Chivas-like arrangement while waiving the “have your own stadium” policy. I will confess to some bias as RBNY supporter, but in my opinion MLS was way, way too focused on an unnecessary second NY-area franchise, was willing to overlook many dangers in the desk with City, and is now reaping the consequences of those ill-considered decisions.
I think these are all pretty fair points. I think there was a big lure for Don in that $100mm franchise tag he was able to extract… it has set the benchmark for subsequent sales and that is a pretty big deal.
For my part, I regard the NYCFC folks more as naive/inexperienced than disinterested or “bad owners”. This project is really even more ambitious than the MCFC scale-up, which ownership didn’t really nail overnight…. City had alreadyexisting operations/fanbase, and been through a few sugar daddy ownership groups that had helped raise their profile and budget
But I hear you, and as an RBNY supporter, you have to be a bit pleased with how this is all going. Certainly, the next shrewd execution NYCFC puts together will be their first.
Everything in sports is about money. Sheikh Monsour is going to do what’s best for his bottom line. Frank Lampard makes Man City a better team. When Man City wins, Man City makes money. Removing Lampard from Manchester may lead to Man City making less money, therefore Frank Lampard will likely stay in Man City until he is deemed unnecessary.
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Interesting that Lampard is being delusional about winning champions or the epl.
Champions belongs to bayern or real, simple as that and the epl belongs to Chelsea.
Another interesting “opinion” is that all New York area teams have a lot issues to fix but cosmos might have the upper hand.
All MLS fans that hate on cosmos fans and plans, can keep hating. Cosmos are what they are at NASL, of course they are D2. Cosmos want a stadium and they might get it, but if cosmos can win and bring players like Lampard, Raul or Henry then why hate so much.
Look red bull, look nycfc, then cosmos. What is the difference, that they all think alike and delusional.
Dafuq?
As always – total nonsense
The difference is that they all think alike?
He won’t he last to the end of the season if and when he does get here. Much like when Dempsey got to MLS, everyones going to take turns “welcoming” him to the league. He’d be better off just coming next year, rather then the middle of the season.
Thats some Jedi-mind @#$%. This is not the team anchor you’re looking for.
Hahaha. +1 from the SBI Staff.
bad to worse.. now he is just insulting the JV team.
id say keep Lampard and commit to providing NYCFC with more up-and-coming players. sure Lampard will be useful in selling tickets the first year but I have my doubts on how much he will provide once the team is established.
…that sounds like a better idea
They should provided them with a replacement if they are going to keep him. But I find it funny how you say you do not know what type of an impact he is going to make when Man City wants to keep them for their title push. . . . . Lets think about that for a minute. Why would a guy who would be a key figure in Man Cities title/ccl push not have an affect for his MLS team
So far we have both Pellegrini & Villa going on record calling CFG “all one club” or “the same club”
while Reina, Kreis and Garber have to pretend they’re not.
This is Red Bull / Chivas all over again
Nice work, Don
Pellegrini is right. The owners of NYCFC won’t be upset because they are the same for MCFC and NYCFC. So Kreis (and what ever fans NYCFC has) better learn to play ball! MCFC is your master now!!
What about MLS’s say? Don’t they usually reject what they believe to be bad deals for the league?
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
NYCFC sure knows how to alienate their fans and devalue the franchise. Congrats!
pellegrini comes off looking like a drooling id iot in this whole thing. Whatever has been decided, no one can be happy he keeps giving quotes.
I think he comes across as someone who tells the truth – that this is one club, Sheikh Mansour FC, and the NY branch of this club is far less important than the Manchester branch. Then again, everyone already knew that didn’t they? See you in June Frankie!
and how is he going to hold up, June-November, after playing the entire EPL season?
He isn’t. He gets regular minutes as a sub.
Luckily the English don’t develop good players so who cares?
They wouldn’t be upset if he stayed because they know they have to play ball.
Junior Varsity
Junior Var City
You missed that golden opportunity 🙂
NYCFCJV
No you missed the Golden Opportunity.
I don’t think Frank Lampard will be staying at Manchester City since Jason Kreis would rather him be available on the first day of preseason training. NYCFC is a new club and unless Kreis changes his mind or at least “approves” and lets Lampard stay in Europe, I don’t think fans will appreciate this and some will see it as disrespect.
Hopefully they resolve this already so we can move on from this novela.
I don’t think Kreis has any say in the matter. It’s pretty obvious all these ManCity teams are just marketing and farm teams in other markets. Thinking they would ever prioritize one of those teams needs over Man City’s needs is ridiculous.
Exactly.
NYCFC is the equivalent of a minor league team in hockey or baseball.
You want your Hershey team to do well but personel decision are made for the benefif of the big club.
Not sure why this is a surprise.
Better off just leave Lampard stay and get another player.
I never did see how exactly Lampard will be playing from August and then jump into the MLS season. Five month into the season when July humidity comes, its going to cut whatever legs he had remaining.
Old guys like Divaio and Keane are strikers and can manage themselves and the running they do. An old midfielder playing for 12months straight wont survive the summer heat.
I think that “some [fans] will see it as disrespect” is understatement. I think most fans should and will see it as that. I’m not even an NYCFC fan and I see it as a slap in the face of the team (and MLS) by ManCity for even dragging this out this long and letting Pellegrini (whom I respect a great deal and think is a great manager) throw out a subtle and condescending threat like “I think that what’s better for the club (Man City) is better for all the clubs.” This is not a good way to start out a new club. I think the only way NYFC saves some face in the event that Lampard’s loan gets extended is if they make out with a permanent or very long term move for one of ManCity’s young stars. Even then, it wouldn’t be ideal…
What Che says.
Yup. Good post. I think it’s fair to say that most parties are aware that MCFC is the lady of the house and NYCFC is one of the mistresses in this organization. Which I think was something everybody expected. Not a problem necessarily assuming there is enough lovin’ to go around.
But this implicit understanding is delicate– if you publicly humiliate your mistress, you shouldn’t be surprised if she throws her drink on you in public. If ownership knows what they are doing, they should be out buying some jewelry for the poor girl before she gets jilted and starts causing real problems.
It is sad what soccer has reduced me to sometimes.
Feeling guilty?
It does make you wonder though why we haven’t seen any strongly worded rebuttals from NYCFC brass yet. Enough with the “we’d prefer” catering to the owner BS.
Frank,
When was the last time you in all seriousness told your boss to go f++k himself in front of everyone at work?
I emailed NYCFC. I told them if they want to waste their millions of dollars by alienating true NYC fans, then let Lampard stay. MLS loves their $, but I would personally hate NY2 to be ChivasUSA-esque.