I know people get antsy whenever the league gets involved in player transactions. But one advantage of single-entity is the ability to step in when the league will suffer damage. I would even say that other commissioners in other American sports leagues do so from time to time. Right now, MLS has a new team in THE major market being treated like a second banana by their ownership. Here's a delusional quote by Manuel Pellegrini about whether a Lampard loan extension would hurt NYCFC. When asked whether extending Lampard’s loan could potentially upset the NYC FC brass, Pellegrini responded, “I don’t think so.” “That’s why we have long conversations with all of them and I think that’s just one club,” Pellegrini continued. “I think that what’s better for the club (Man City) is better for all the clubs.” Obviously, the NYCFC brass is in a compromised position in dealing with Man City. So no one is really looking after MLS' interests. So the league has reason to step in. To me, the loan itself might only be a bad idea. The fact that the decision is being made in Manchester and not New York is the bigger problem. I realize that ManCity has invested in the league. But so have 20-ish other people and organizations. And they deserve better than to have a half-committed organization treating its new partners like also-rans. I think the league should tell NYCFC that they will not agree to a loan extension. Either he wants to be here. Or NYCFC sells him, presumably to Man City. And then go read the Riot Act to MCFC.
Yes. Garber should tell one of his bosses to sell a player. I'm assuming that you would do the same thing at your own job, right? Garber's job is basically a mediator between the disparate ownership groups and acts as a voice for them. So he has next to no say in this. What you are saying is that the other owners should force a fellow owner to sell a player. Now, do you think any owner is going to want to set that precedent when it very well could happen to them in the future?
Why should Garber say anything? NYCFC is there own team. NYCFC isn't a farm team. There is no way Man City would like after themselves before NYCFC. I know. I couldn't stop laughing too.
The last thing we need is more league HQ interference in the day to day roster issues of the clubs. If the league was concerned about any of this they would have made clear plain rules against/for whatever the issue is before any of this happened. The league being reactive instead of proactive just further harms their credibility. I think it's time for a commissioner who can rise above and make some clear cut consistent inflexible rules regarding the sporting aspects of the league. The last two years it seems like the league is always one step behind, making up stuff as they go along ... You can only get away with that for so long. Sooner or later you blindly walk into a big pile of shit. We're lucky that MLS has a low enough profile that these missteps don't end up on the 24 hr. sports news cycle.
This is bad. Probably more for NYC FC than MLS. It just makes NYC FC look like a joke franchise, like Chivas USA. Potential NYC FC fans may be drifting over to the Red Bulls or the New York Cosmos. This is a very serious problem.
Not really, people just making this bigger than what really is, shit if Man city can win the EPL and dude plays a role helping, this may be even a bigger PR boost when is all done. But I am down for calling them Man City USA That is what I will be calling them anyways.
If this is just an isolated episode of Man City "pulling rank" over NYCFC then the controversy will fade pretty rapidly. If this becomes a trend, then NYCFC has problems....................................... However, its true that this isn't the kind of PR that a club wants to start with as they're trying to draw in fans.
When I made the above statement, I did not know that Lampard only signed an employment agreement with Manchester City and never signed an employment agreement with NYCFC. Lampard is the mothership's player and can only play with Manchester City's subsidiary in New York City if the mothership allows. In other words, Lampard is not playing on loan from NYCFC to Man City. Case closed. There is nothing Garber can do.
No. Teams need to learn to succeed or fail on their own merit. Teams have their own responsibility to learn from mistakes and improve on them. We don't need MLS HQ attempting to help run all the teams throughout the league. That also questions the integrity of competition. If I'm an Eastern MLS team, I want NYCFC to do poorly as it helps my own team. That's competition, pure and simple. Last thing we need is teams who are making mistakes getting help from the league while others have to fix their problems themselves. That's not true competition or a level playing field. MLS makes the rules, the teams operate by the rules. Naturally, some will do better than others.