Tevez given extended leave.

Tevez is to have another 4 days before returning for training at Carrington according to reports at the time of writing this. This will have given him a 21 day break since Argentina crashed out of the Copa America after several under-par displays in the South American tournament. He will now return on Monday, missing the Community Shield.

Sergio Aguero came to Manchester last week to finalise his move, and Pablo Zabaleta was boarding a plane back to England around 12 hours ago (at the time of writing this) so should now be back in Manchester. So why has Tevez been given another 4 days before he has to report back?

Is this something that he has requested himself? Has Mancini spoken to the board and said he doesn't want the team distracted before the Community Shield? We just don't have that information, and we're not likely to get it any time soon.

We all know about Tevez's family issues and problems with England so we don't need to go over that again. Hopefully it is Mancini's way of keeping the unit focused on the season's opener at Wembley rather than a way of trying to keep him sweet. City did enough of that in the past by giving Tevez the captain's armband to give him a sense of higher importance to the team. He was also given leave to sort out family problems which somehow took him several thousand miles away from Argentina into the company of a young model.



Picture by Andy Oliver.

How his return will affect the team is yet to be seen, although David Silva feels there will be little disruption saying; "Carlos has to return and that's great. He's a very important player for us. I don't think there will be a problem. We know Carlos well."

I don't know how good his fortune telling is but lets hope the little Spanish magician is right.