Report: Carlos Tevez Will Return to Manchester City, Bolster Title Challengers’ Options in Attack

Carlos Tevez is set to end his four-month exile and return to Manchester City by Tuesday. The Mirror reports Tevez will meet with manager Roberto Mancini and club bosses with hopes of rejoining the squad he abandonded back in November.

“Negotiations about bringing the 28-year-old back to the Etihad Stadium have made good progress and a compromise between club and player is expected to be brokered,” the report says.

Tevez’s always-stormy relationship with Mancini disintegrated in September, when he allegedly refused the manager’s orders to enter a game. City fined him for gross misconduct, and Mancini vowed that the former club captain would never again play for City (while he manages the team).

Tevez left his club for his native Argentina on November 7 without authorization, and the club fined him six-weeks’ pay shortly thereafter. A number of top clubs tried to sign him during the January transfer window, but could not agree on a suitable transfer fee with City. He has lost an estimated £10 million ($15.8 million) during his lengthy strike.

The 28-year-old striker hasn’t played a competitive game in nearly five months, but City included him in its Premier League squad. He led the Premier League in scoring last season, and could have an impact on this season’s title race.

But he will have to go through some lengths to reintegrate himself into the locker room he left in a lurch. City is locked in a duel with crosstown rival Manchester United for the league championship. Time will tell if Tevez proves to be a destabilizing or galvanizing force when he returns.

Have a question for Marcus Kwesi O’Mard? Send it to him via Twitter at @NESNsoccer or send it here. He will pick a few questions to answer every week for his mailbag.

Thumbnail photo via Flickr/Catatan Bola Photo Gallery