Joleon Lescott says it will be a help rather than a hindrance when Carlos Tevez eventually returns for Manchester City. Following his apology on Tuesday, Tevez resumed training with the Manchester City first team on Thursday and the South American say he could be ready to play within a fortnight.
The City manager, Roberto Mancini, believes three weeks would be a more realistic target for a player who has not been involved in a competitive game since the Champions League encounter with Bayern Munich in September that led to the split in the first place.
Either way, Tevez is set to be involved at some point in March as City continue their Premier League title campaign and look to advance through a last-16 Europa League meeting with either Sporting Lisbon or Legia Warsaw.
"No one here sees Carlos as a disruption," said Lescott. "If we can all get together and push in the same direction I am sure it's a positive for the club. With us, Carlos has never been an issue, and we are confident that if he does get his chance, he will score a lot of goals."Tevez became a hero among City fans with a return of 52 goals in 91 games following his controversial move from Manchester United. However, that legacy has been badly affected by recent events. Throughout the striker's stand-off with Mancini, City supporters have taken the manager's side, but Lescott has urged them to get behind the striker.
"You need to appreciate what Carlos has done for the club over the last two years. Obviously Carlos hasn't been here for the last few months but that's an issue the club have dealt with. We feel that everyone involved has dealt with it correctly and the players have got on with the job in hand. We are still performing in the Premier League and I don't see how it will affect us in the final run-in.
"There have been moments when we could have done with him – he is a quality player, so even when we were winning no one wrote him off and thought 'we don't need him any more'. More often than not we have won games this season, so it is no judgment on the manager's team selection. Now he is back and involved I am sure there will be a lot more fear in opposition teams.
"We haven't seen him much – we were off for the weekend as we didn't have a game and then preparing for the Porto game – and he has been doing fitness work to get him up to speed. But when I spoke to him at the weekend he did say he was raring to go and looking forward to getting involved."
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