Manchester United ace Carlos Tevez has all but convinced manager Sir Alex Ferguson to sign him permanently after his four-goal performance against Blackburn Rovers. United have dithered over paying the outstanding £26 million needed to make Tevez's stay long-term, but his performance last night will go a long way to convincing Ferguson into holding onto him.

A target for Real Madrid, Tevez beamed: "I'm very pleased to have scored four goals because it's the first time I have done that in my career.

"I was really looking forward to this game because I haven't been playing much.

"But our performance showed we can play Champions League standard football in any cup competition."

United boss Ferguson said: "Carlos and the likes of Anderson and Jonny Evans produced absolutely marvellous performances and that was great to see.

"It makes my job more difficult of course but it makes the club stronger.

"We should have been coasting after going 4-1 up but their two late goals caused us a bit of a twitch until Carlos scored the fantastic fifth.

"Some of the football we played was outstanding. We created plenty of chances and scored five at home but we got careless at the back."