As the Premier League’s richest club and reigning champion, Manchester City didn’t expect to have to rely on an aging Lampard. After a spate of injuries though, it’s had to, and Lampard has evolved from a high-profile backup into the team’s third-leading goalscorer. His value is such that CFG extended his stay in Manchester through at least the end of the season in June—revealing, in the process, that he was never technically on loan from NYCFC. Friday morning, Lampard issued a statement denouncing rumors that he wouldn’t come to New York at all as “lies and nonsense,” but nevertheless, the man who’d said it was “a privilege to help make history here in New York City” wouldn’t be there for the club’s first game.

The about-face raised a furor in American soccer. Some felt that CFG was treating NYCFC as a feeder club, a little brother. The writer Grant Wahl called the delay a “slap in the face” at Sports Illustrated, an NYCFC supporters’ group publicly denounced it online; and on Fox Sports, former USA defender Alexei Lalas howled about Lampard’s lack of commitment with all the anguish of a jilted lover. News of the delay reignited an old debate: For European stars, is the MLS anything more than a long retirement party?

Sort of.

No one would seriously argue that MLS is as competitive or popular as the Premier League or, for that matter, as the top leagues in Spain, France, or Italy. Behind all the talk of “fresh challenges” and “growing the sport in the US,” the rationale implicit in a European star’s move to America is that he’s on the decline. This was made explicit when Steven Gerrard—another English legend coming to America next year to play for the LA Galaxy—said he would have stayed at Liverpool if he could still expect to start every match, and when England manager Roy Hodgson said the Lampard and Gerrard signings were a real coup for MLS because both players are still “Premier League standard.” Xavi, Barcelona’s sublimely gifted midfielder, had “his bags packed” for New York too. Then he changed his mind, because Barcelona promised him a key role, and because MLS is, quite simply, a lesser attraction.

In other words, to expect Lampard to ask to leave City during a Premier League title race is to expect Stephon Marbury to turn down a big NBA contract with the Chicago Bulls because his Beijing Ducks’ season isn’t over: Perhaps accepting foreign dominance is hard in a country that reflexively calls its domestic champions the “world champions.”

The inferiority of MLS doesn’t mean fading superstars aren’t genuinely interested in playing in this country, and it doesn’t mean top players—like Lampard—won’t turn down Europe’s lesser lights to join the league. Nor does soccer’s secondary status in America mean these stars fail to make a positive impact on the public consciousness and the pitch. Robbie Keane, Ireland’s record goalscorer and a Premier League veteran, capped his 2014 MVP season by scoring the goal that won the MLS Cup. Bored guns for hire don’t do celebratory somersaults.

The official MLS response to the Lampard delay was measured. “If there was an error in judgment on this, it was not just announcing that he would come in July and figuring out how to manage the start of the season, no different than what happened with Robbie Keane or Thierry Henry or David Beckham,” Commissioner Don Garber told Sports Illustrated. “You’re dealing with a very unusual set of circumstances. Frank has become one of the most important players in Man City’s season and he’s scored critical goals to have them tied for first place in the Premier League.”