Are the arrivals of Frank Lampard and Andrea Pirlo a luxury New...

Are the arrivals of Frank Lampard and Andrea Pirlo a luxury New York City can afford?

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Go back five years (maybe even less) and if a single team had managed to capture David Villa, Frank Lampard, and Andrea Pirlo over the course of a single season, it would be reasonable to assume that their fans would be in a quasi-unbelievable Football Manager style heaven.

Fast forward to 2015, and the announcement of Andrea Pirlo as the recently formed New York City’s third ever Designated Player, has brought with it as much debate and question as it has cheer and excitement to fans of the game in the states as a whole, and New York City in particular.

The fundamental criticism stems not purely from the players potential elder statesmen categorisation, but that the combined arrival of midfielders Lampard and Pirlo in particular, is a perceived luxury the team can ill afford both in a playing and a long term from a strategic organisation perspective.

While it may ring true that from a sporting angle the team, despite its recent improvement, is clamouring out for a proven MLS reader defender. The truth is that with the mechanisms available to them, somewhat ironically it would be easier for NYCFC to bring a big name, big money Designated Player from abroad such as Andrea Pirlo, than dispose of the ‘working capital’ that represents current players (within a wafer thin squad) allocation money or future draft picks/considerations.

Lampard scored six goals in his final EPL season at Manchester City
Lampard scored six goals in his final EPL season at Manchester City

Also, if you look at the general trend of New York City FC’s signings, it would be reasonable to concur that the long-term vision/player development strategy is to promote from within Manchester City’s academy (Shay Facey, Erik Johansen and now Angeliño Tasende) at least until they are able to produce more R.J Allen type players of their own.

Though perhaps cynically some would feel that there would be no great rush in this respect, as the team in the interim would still serve as a highly useful intermediary vehicle in the City EDS development structure. Names of the calibre of Pirlo and Lampard would unquestionably benefit in terms of mentoring said youth crops who could do far worse in terms of role models from which to learn the nuances of the global game.

From a purely footballing balance viewpoint, it is not completely unreasonable to assume that a midfield of Pirlo – Mix Diskerud, Ned Grabavoy – and Frank Lampard, could still be successful within the MLS. You could even assert that having players of the quality, and experience of Pirlo and Lampard would perhaps help NYCFC’s defending, the ‘old dogs’ having the necessary game management experience seemingly missing in the early stages of the campaign.

The highly sought after Italian legend comes to New York on a free transfer
The highly sought after Italian legend comes to New York on a free transfer

It would thus be equally reasonable to affirm that this would require extremely well tailored game time management, and quite probably a strong(er) rotation policy by New York City boss Jason Kreis. Knowing when and where to bring in the likes of Andrew Jacobson, Tommy McNamara, Kadwo Poku and company.

Ultimately, the reality is the team has (and in all likelihood will in the short term continue to have) fundamental issues such as the central-defensive position, however, any who expected NYCFC to instantly perform in the league perhaps lack a basic understanding of how the MLS works.

Those who point to the combined age of the Lampard/Pirlo pairing as an issue (and even extend this to the “Designated Trio”, including Villa) somewhat strangely forget to consider the circumstances in full. New York is a completely new club, so it would surely only benefit them in their attempts to build a fanbase and establish their presence to have such high-profile greats of the game at this juncture.

Equally (and putting to one side the earlier Manchester City EDS Concerns) there are considerably worse ways to build for the future than having a couple of world stars to teach and inspire the younger home-grown players. Paradoxically, as many are eager to point out, being that they will not presumably be around in the long term, they could hardly be considered to then block the progress of the proposed young talent breaking through.

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All-in-all the reality is that Lampard and Pirlo tick many, if not all of the boxes that New York City FC could dream to aspire to at this point.

In the first year of what is purported to be an ambitious, long term project. Jason Kreis and his City overlords need to plan for the here and now, whilst laying seeds to later reap in the future, and Lampard, Pirlo and even Villa do just that. And while time waits for no man, there is more than enough recent evidence to suggest that all three players are still more than capable of playing a significant part towards their teams success.

Nonetheless, chapter one of the New York City FC legacy looks set to reach an exciting ‘zero hour’ in the story, with the introduction (potentially this weekend) of two its most compelling protagonists. It goes without saying that it will be well worth a watch!

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