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Over the weekend, City Football Group's expansion into American soccer with New York City FC officially began, but one very important player was missing. That player, of course, was Frank Lampard, who has controversially remained with Manchester City until the end of this Premier League season. But, with the caveat that hindsight is 20/20, was it worth keeping Lampard away from MLS?
While Lampard's performance at the beginning of his City campaign was of high quality (his goal against Chelsea is one of the few things keeping this year's title race even somewhat competitive), Lampard hasn't been on the field enough to make much of an impact during the times it was assumed he'd be needed by the team.
With Yaya Toure missing significant time this year for the African Cup of Nations, it was expected that Lampard's extended stay would be used to fill that place. Instead, Lampard saw most of his action as a late substitute, where he was not effective enough to fix City's poor play during that time. After City pillaged their sister club to keep him around, garnering some negative press in the process, it feels like that was all for naught and that City would have been better served to let Lampard go.
Our boy Danny Pugsley has more over at Metro Sport. Feel free to vote below.