the City boss confirmed on Saturday night that the England midfielder, who signed for City’s sister outfit New York City FC this summer ending 13 trophy-laden years at Chelsea, will join his side on Wednesday.
With the 2015 MLS season not beginning until March, it was rumoured Lampard may head tohead to Melbourne City, the third club owned by the City Football Group, on a short-term deal.
But instead he has plumped to turn out for Chelsea’s title rivals and Pellegrini said the 36-year-old will play at the Etihad until the new year.
“As you know Frank has signed a contract with New York City and will start working here [the United States] in January as the season starts in March,” Pellegrini said following City’s pre-season 2-2 draw with Olympiakos.
“From next Wednesday he will start working with our team and will play for us until then. At the moment he will work with the squad and be a member of the squad. He will fight for a position.
“He knows we have a very good team, we have a lot of players in his position. He is one player more. We have a lot of games particularly with the Champions League – so he’s very important for our team.”
Manchester City and Chelsea are set to face each other in the Premier League on September 21, though Pellegrini admitted he would be open to Lampard missing the match, something which had mooted in some quarters.
But the Chilean manager stopped short of offering the Blues hero a guarantee he would not feature and said: “I will talk about those things with him but he is a player for Manchester City, he will play every game that he needs to play.”
Written by Steve Milne
