Frank Lampard has insisted he never intended to play for another Premier League club after leaving Chelsea in the summer.
The 36-year-old midfielder was caught in an embarrassing row after Manchester City were forced to admit they had unintentionally misled the public on both sides of the Atlantic from the moment it was announced Lampard had ‘signed’ for New York City FC on a two-year deal last summer.
That, was not true. Nor was the subsequent announcement that the 36-year-old had joined City on a ‘loan’ until the end of the calendar year. The truth, admitted by City, is that Lampard put his name only to a pre-contract agreement with NYCFC, stipulating that he would join them on January
But Lampard insisted that despite the furore he will move there in the summer.
He told The Times: 'I had sat down with Ferran (Soriano, the chief executive of both clubs) and it was all about New York. There was no mention of Man City. If they had wanted to speak to me on behalf of Man City, with New York in the pipeline beyond that, because I was a free agent, but that was never the question at all.
'To be honest when I thought about five or six months off, I thought it was quite a result. I thought I've been playing solid for a long, long time. It will be a good break. I'll find a way to keep fit. I thought I maybe could train with Chelsea.'
The only binding contract he signed was with City, one that saw him contracted to the club for one season with a ‘break clause’ inserted that would enable him to head to New York for MLS pre-season in January if deemed convenient.
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