“We want to be New Yorkers. We are building a truly authentic New York team. This is not a Manchester City team or a brand play or a marketing trick - this is real”. Ferran Soriano, CEO of New York City, has repeated that line so often that you could be forgiven for thinking he felt his dual role as CEO of Manchester City raised suspicions.

Yet after choosing to name their MLS club City and dress them in the English club’s colours, the club do indeed look rather like a a pale blue imitation of the real thing. And now Frank Lampard, instead of being the face of NYFC’s first season, will remain at the Etihad Stadium until the end of the Premier League campaign – because that is what Manchester City wanted.

With City manager Manuel Pellegrini not even able to confirm that the former Chelsea midfielder will move to New York at the end of the season, there is the prospect of the Lampard saga running into the summer. But paradoxically the mess offers NYCFC a chance to do something that might not only resolve the situation but could also be a start for them at least looking like a strong football club with their own identity.

NYCFC could (if there are no other secret contractual details yet to be revealed) publicly move on from Lampard and quickly replace him, in the January transfer window, with another ‘Designated Player’ with no links to City. Those who recall the angst caused by David Beckham’s extended loans from LA Galaxy to Milan, will know that leaving Lampard’s arrival date at NYCFC hanging in the air through the first half of the season, risks the club looking weak and needy and their fans and the soccer media agitated. If New York fans feel snubbed, the club could show some solidarity with them and leave Lampard to his career in England.

There are no shortage of marketable players who would be willing to move to MLS and who would generate similar buzz to Lampard. Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard is the latest to be linked with a move across the pond and would fit the bill perfectly. Barcelona’s Xavi Hernandez recently confirmed he was close to moving to New York during the close season and could perhaps be persuaded to rethink. Sheikh Mansour certainly doesn’t lack the resources to persuade European players near the end of their careers to move to New York.

But NYCFC could also go in another direction and reject the entire marketing-led strategy of recruiting aging European stars to front their franchise. There are very few players who have the power Beckham had to generate mainstream media excitement. The case of Bradley Wright-Phillips, top scorer in MLS last season with the Red Bulls, is a reminder that getting younger, hungrier, foreign players can deliver positive results.



City have a vast scouting network, but so far they have recruited only from the domestic MLS market (mainly through the expansion draft) and then added two big names – Lampard and David Villa. A better use of City’s resources would be to bring in some of the talented players they have scouted globally who aren’t needed by the ‘mother club’ but who could excel in MLS – even if they don’t carry much marketing potential.

The only major decision the club made that did not have a predictable Manchester City link was choosing as their head coach the highly-rated former Real Salt Lake boss Jason Kreis. It would be refreshing if the club were to use Mansour’s resources to give the 42-year-old American the chance to recruit players he feels would be able to bring success to his team.

Kreis knows what is needed to win in MLS – he led a stylish Real Salt Lake to the 2009 MLS title, defeating Beckham’s LA Galaxy in the final. He was astute in finding players from Central and South America who could fit within his club’s budget and his quick passing approach. With fewer financial restrictions, he could create something genuinely exciting in New York, a city whose fans might be sophisticated enough to be more impressed by successful, attractive football than the chance to see a ‘name’ at the end of his career.

Something has to be done. MLS has already lost one franchise, the doomed Los Angeles team Chivas USA. They were also branded after – and subservient to – a foreign club, Mexico’s C.D. Guadalajara. The league can ill-afford the NYFC franchise failing but with only 11,000 season tickets sold and their immediate home in the Yankee’s baseball park rather than the new soccer specific stadium they initially talked of, the Lampard saga is just the latest worrying sign. It is probably too late for NYCFC to row back from their ill-advised branding decisions – and give themselves an independent name and look – but they can start to get things right on the football front.

By jettisoning Lampard, NYCFC would have two Designated Player slots available just as Europe is in the January transfer window. If City Football Group are interested in repairing the damage done by the Lampard affair they should use this next month to back Kreis and create a team that can do something New Yorkers always respect – win.