Lampard Out? Frank Doing Analysis for Euro 2016 on BBC.

I'm guessing Frank stays injured until the last game of the season when he starts for us on the pitch. While they are talking to the fans at the end of the match, Ashton Kutcher busts out of what we thought was Fat Frank and yells, "You've been Punked!"
 
Lampard is keeping our 3rd DP spot hostage. We have to take Lampard out to save our DP spot. Send in The Punisher.

Not just DP3 hostage. DP4/TAM can also be signed at the same time. If we also cut Mix. And considering his playing time, that might be best for everyone.
 
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If he really gave a fuck what the fan base thought, the only pictures we would see of him on social media would be of him rehabbing, training and working to get back on the field, and the only appearances he would be making would be at practices and team activities. Particularly after the trail of past blunders. Every site-seeing picture and television appearance is yet another FU to a disappointed and angry fan base. He has to understand that, and simply not care. Or he must have a really poor gauge. Or a combination of both.
 
If he really gave a fuck what the fan base thought, the only pictures we would see of him on social media would be of him rehabbing, training and working to get back on the field, and the only appearances he would be making would be at practices and team activities. Particularly after the trail of past blunders. Every site-seeing picture and television appearance is yet another FU to a disappointed and angry fan base. He has to understand that, and simply not care. Or he must have a really poor gauge. Or a combination of both.
He seems to believe his fan base is in England, and Chelsea fans worldwide. And he's probably right. Doesn't make it any less insulting to us, though, as we are currently his team, according to theory.
 
When Lampard is cut loose during the summer window (do I think wishfully? Very well, I think wishfully), those of us owning Lampard merch should stage some sort of sacrifice of all of it outside the stadium before a home game. Something like a bonfire, but not a bonfire, because fire and also because polyester. A ritual dumpstering?

Come to think of it, maybe this should happen sooner rather than later.
 
When Lampard is cut loose during the summer window (do I think wishfully? Very well, I think wishfully), those of us owning Lampard merch should stage some sort of sacrifice of all of it outside the stadium before a home game. Something like a bonfire, but not a bonfire, because fire and also because polyester. A ritual dumpstering?

Come to think of it, maybe this should happen sooner rather than later.
A Lampyre
 
So he'll be phoning it in to two jobs at the same time.
I know that this was four pages ago, but this was so, so good.
Hes an absolute disgrace, since he supposedly joined the team in 2014:
-Went on loan to MCFC then had his loan extended and tried to claim that it wasnt his decision and he thought he would have played more even though he played more minutes in the 2nd half of the season.
-Comes back and is immediately injured - what a coincidence considering the whole MCFC season he was never injured and then seems to manage to get injured on his summer holiday.
-Finally plays and doesn't play much better than Grabavoy.
-Plays the first pre season friendly and then gets injured but should return during preseason, its week 10 and hes only just recently appeared at training.
-Decides to go and do TV analysis which is conveniently at the same time as when he is going to finally be back from injury.

I don't even care anymore, hes so crap that he wouldnt even start anyway and if Poku can't make the matchday squad then there is no way he is good enough to.
I swear he is trying to do as much as he can to annoy us, him leaving so we can get a 3rd DP would be the only good contribution hes made to the club.
Point of clarification -- it wasn't a loan, was it? I thought the big hubbub was that he'd never actually signed for us. That's what enabled them to extend the stay outside of the loan window, IIRC.
 
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If he really gave a fuck what the fan base thought, the only pictures we would see of him on social media would be of him rehabbing, training and working to get back on the field, and the only appearances he would be making would be at practices and team activities. Particularly after the trail of past blunders. Every site-seeing picture and television appearance is yet another FU to a disappointed and angry fan base. He has to understand that, and simply not care. Or he must have a really poor gauge. Or a combination of both.
I have a few thoughts about this.

1) We here are not the fan base. We're heavily involved with the minutiae of the team and every decision they make, as shown by us coming on here every day. Normal fans do not do this. I'm a Met fan going back since the '60s but I've never been on a Mets forum and am not heavily involved with discussions about the team. I have no idea what the latest-as-of-this-morning reports on Player X's elbow is. That makes me a normal Mets fan. I watch the games, I go to some each year, I have a t-shirt and a batting practice jersey from 6 or 8 years ago and I don't even have a Mets hat at the moment. I'm no less of a fan than those who are on whatever forums that are out there, but those people aren't the usual Mets fan, *I* am. So, no, we're not the NYCFC fan base.

2) Not everyone here on the board hates Lampard. For no actually good reason I'd say it's probably around 50/50. Personally I'd like to see him play significant minutes but if he never does and leaves the team I'm not going to be heartbroken either.

3) Given 1 and 2, I'd have to say we don't really have a "disappointed and angry fan base." We have a good team that's starting to win (I'm hoping it's a trend!) and tons of people at the stadium for every match. So I'd say we have a strong and happy fan base, and also that most of them are fine with that regardless of whether Lampard plays or not.

4) Everything I've seen or heard Lampard say says to me that he *does* care that he's not playing. It's possible that he's a master wool-over-our-eyes-puller, or he could be genuinely bummed about it. Nothing in the prior years of his career would make me think he's making it all up though. He's always been dedicated and genuine about it as far as I can tell.

Look, I don't have any idea what the real truth of this is, nor does anyone else on here either. I can only go by what he says and what the club says. It could be the honest truth or it could be a pack of lies. As always, I'm not demanding anyone has to like him or want him here, but personally I'd like to see him play. I hope he can at some point, preferably sooner rather than later. I just think the average fan would say, "oh cool, Lampard's playing today" rather than thinking, "I hate that guy, he hasn't played since last October." We're not the average fans though.

My 2¢.
 
How many athletes do you think really have a particularly good gauge of what normal people think of them or the world in general?

For that matter, how many celebrities, politicians, trust fund babies, etc.?
Do you have any insight into that? I've been around some industry-specific famous and c-list just famous people, and I honestly don't have a clue beyond what I read into the fact that by-and-large, they do not act or interact or relate to people in any sort of "normal" way. Were that they way before or is it a product of that fame?

I mean, do big-time fund managers and executives walk around elementary school with a general air of superiority/cockiness/arrogance? I don't mean a little arrogant. I mean, the kind of "I'm giving you the treasure of my presence" that I just couldn't pull off.

Really interesting diversion, anyway. If you care to elaborate and share your insights, I'd be curious to compare.
 
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I have a few thoughts about this.

1) We here are not the fan base. We're heavily involved with the minutiae of the team and every decision they make, as shown by us coming on here every day. Normal fans do not do this. I'm a Met fan going back since the '60s but I've never been on a Mets forum and am not heavily involved with discussions about the team. I have no idea what the latest-as-of-this-morning reports on Player X's elbow is. That makes me a normal Mets fan. I watch the games, I go to some each year, I have a t-shirt and a batting practice jersey from 6 or 8 years ago and I don't even have a Mets hat at the moment. I'm no less of a fan than those who are on whatever forums that are out there, but those people aren't the usual Mets fan, *I* am. So, no, we're not the NYCFC fan base.

2) Not everyone here on the board hates Lampard. For no actually good reason I'd say it's probably around 50/50. Personally I'd like to see him play significant minutes but if he never does and leaves the team I'm not going to be heartbroken either.

3) Given 1 and 2, I'd have to say we don't really have a "disappointed and angry fan base." We have a good team that's starting to win (I'm hoping it's a trend!) and tons of people at the stadium for every match. So I'd say we have a strong and happy fan base, and also that most of them are fine with that regardless of whether Lampard plays or not.

4) Everything I've seen or heard Lampard say says to me that he *does* care that he's not playing. It's possible that he's a master wool-over-our-eyes-puller, or he could be genuinely bummed about it. Nothing in the prior years of his career would make me think he's making it all up though. He's always been dedicated and genuine about it as far as I can tell.

Look, I don't have any idea what the real truth of this is, nor does anyone else on here either. I can only go by what he says and what the club says. It could be the honest truth or it could be a pack of lies. As always, I'm not demanding anyone has to like him or want him here, but personally I'd like to see him play. I hope he can at some point, preferably sooner rather than later. I just think the average fan would say, "oh cool, Lampard's playing today" rather than thinking, "I hate that guy, he hasn't played since last October." We're not the average fans though.

My 2¢.

I won't respond to all of your points as I think they are all fair and reasonable ones. First, generally, I understand that an old guy can get injured, and I believe that he was/is hurt. That's not my point. My primary point is (or should be) clear from my prior post as to how his public actions suggest a lack of care and/or awareness.

As for the number of fans who "hate" Lampard, first of all, I wouldn't use that word. I don't hate him, and would assume that most don't really hate the guy. I do think that a greater number than you think not only do not like the situation and the circumstances, but also do have hard feelings towards the way he has conducted himself. There is a large contingent on here, but also in various other online forums, all over social media, and evidenced by the boos he received at a recent game when they showed him on the big screen.

As for a disappointed and angry fan base, I was specifically referring to disappointment and anger on this particular issue, not about anything else. I agree with your assessment on the strength and happiness of the fan base otherwise.

I don't know whether or not he cares that he's not playing, but I am sure that he would prefer to be playing and hope that is the case. What I don't think he cares about is how anyone feels about it. He knows how much of a debacle his affiliation with the team has been with everything that has happened from day 1, some of it his doing, some of it likely just bad luck. With that, you would think that he would have some sense as to how to best conduct himself publicly in a way that would not further disappoint or upset the fan base (and even his teammates and owners), however large or small a contingent that is. So in my mind, he either doesn't care, or he has poor recognition.

And I'm not and have never been one of the fierce ones on the Lampard issues.
 
no, we're not the NYCFC fan base.
That raises an important/interesting question. Any successful company cares about its customers. But who should they value more - the average customer or the evangelist? Most companies are desperate to create evangelists. That's who we are. And I suspect that in terms of buying power and market impact we each are worth anywhere from 10-100 "average" fans. Think in terms of number of tickets, amount of merchandise, people you've encouraged to come to games, etc.

If we aren't the NYCFC fan base, I think they are making a significant business mistake. Not a "they'll crash and burn mistake" but a "they could be doing much better" mistake.