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Despite frustrations, Lampard has no regrets of mid-season move to NYCFC

Photo by Danny Wild / USA Today Sports

By MICHAEL PENG

NEW YORK — The New York City FC chapter of Frank Lampard’s career has been a frustrating one so far to say the least.

From the contract confusions to nagging injuries and unfavorable match results, Lampard’s post-Premier League campaign hasn’t exactly reflected the success he has had during what has been an accomplished career for the English legend.

The 37-year-old midfielder made just his second start — third appearance overall — for NYCFC Saturday and played 60 minutes in what ultimately resulted in a 2-1 loss to the Columbus Crew at Yankee Stadium.

After the match, Lampard briefly reflected on his short stint with NYCFC thus far, starting with the NYCFC-Manchester City contract issues that delayed his arrival in MLS.

“I can’t waste time on (thinking about) that,” Lampard said. “Manchester City wanted me to stay. We have the same owners as this club as Man City have and it was their desire for me to stay. I’m a player and employee and I stayed.”

Lampard was thought to have joined NYCFC initially as a free agent in July of 2014 before going on a short loan deal to parent club Manchester City until the start of the 2015 MLS season. However, it was soon revealed that Lampard had actually signed as a free agent instead and would extend his stay with the English powerhouse until the end of the 2014-15 Premier League season, which would overlap into the beginning of the MLS campaign.

The mix-up caused quite a controversy between the two clubs, but Lampard doesn’t want lament on the past.

“I can’t say that I didn’t love my time in Manchester because I really enjoyed it,” he said. “I want this to be just as enjoyable and wins help that. When the team is not winning, it’s obviously not as enjoyable so I want to do everything I can to help us get wins and make this time as enjoyable.”

But Lampard hasn’t been able to do everything he has hoped to do for his new club. A calf injury delayed his MLS debut — which could have been in early July — until Aug. 1 at home at Montreal, where he played 21 minutes as a substitute.

Lampard said it had been a difficult few weeks for him prior to that because he had been “frustrated” and “desperate” to make his debut while still dealing with the injury. And after he started and played 86 minutes against the Red Bulls the following week, head coach Jason Kreis announced that Lampard had picked up a quad injury as well that ended up keeping him out of action until Saturday.

“I think I probably came in and tried to get fit a little too quickly,” Lampard said on his preparation for his stint with NYCFC. “It’s easy in hindsight. I wanted to come when the results weren’t fantastic at a time and I really wanted to come in and make that difference, but when you’re injured, there’s nothing you can do.

Lampard added he’s been doing everything he can trying to be in optimal physical condition as of late, but it’s just something he cannot spend too much mulling about.

“Injuries are part and parcel of football and this one has been very badly timed for me,” he said. “I can’t dwell too much. I’ve dwelled a little bit over the last six weeks and certain days when I’ve gotten a little upset about it but my desire now is to get a lot of training in over the next 10 days and get ready for (FC) Dallas.”

Comments

  1. Completely different being part of a super club compared to trying to win as a sub par “parity” team.

    He obviously can’t handle the second.

    Reply
  2. Luis, I don’t think we’ll ever understand that whole contract fiasco. I’m just waiting to see if he does anything worthwhile this season. So far, he’s been an absolute disaster in every aspect.

    Reply
  3. So he’s trying deflect any blame. He was in the position to accept or refuse the contract it was presented to him in which he would have to play a season with Man City and then play another season with NYCFC with minimal rest in between. Either he overestimated his ability to recover and own abilities, underestimated MLS, just didn’t care or a combination of all of them. Also, didn’t he have a contract to play with Man City but no contract with NYCFC until way after he was supposedly signed by NYCFC?

    Reply

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