Manchester United have created a culture the next manager must dismantle

An impatient Sir Alex Ferguson said Carlos Tevez was en route back from Mars. For Manchester United supporters, Montevideo might as well be outside the solar system.

In April 2009, Tevez was into the final months of his United career and returned to Manchester after a humiliating 6-1 defeat with Argentina in Bolivia on Friday evening. A depleted United were playing against Aston Villa on Sunday without the suspended Wayne Rooney,Paul Scholes and Nemanja Vidic while Rio Ferdinand and Dimitar Berbatov were injured. Lee Martin and Federico Macheda made the bench.

Tevez was due back on Thursday afternoon but touched down 24 hours later. He still started on an afternoon Macheda mimicked Steve Bruce at the Stretford End. A month later, Tevez cupped his ears in front of Ferguson after scoring in the Manchester derby, piqued by United’s refusal to sign him permanently.

If the outgoing Tevez was that committed then what are we to make of Edinson Cavani? Cavani is no longer in Montevideo after he was granted additional leave after playing for Uruguay on Tuesday night and missed the FA Cup defeat to Middlesbrough. That gave Chris Wilder an easy team talk.

There is doubtless mitigation behind Cavani’s absence. Jason Sancho’s body was on the pitch at Villa Park last month but his mind was elsewhere and four days later it emerged he had suffered a family bereavement. United were understanding and Sancho missed two matches. Victor Lindelof retreated to Sweden with his family after his wife and their two infant sons hid from burglars while Lindelof was playing at Brentford.

The difference with Cavani is this has happened before. Last year, the United medical staff would declare Cavani fit only for him to give a second opinion: he