Carlos Tevez returned to Argentina during the week off he had been granted by the club, set for a return to play in the first leg of our semi-final against Derby on Wednesday.

Last night, reports emerged showing Tevez to be incredibly frustrated with Sir Alex Ferguson and his contract status. He went as far as to claim he would accept an offer from any club who offered him a good five years, with all clubs now being on equal footing.

What sparked his frustration was news that Ferguson had said Tevez had turned down a massive salary, wanting to be paid as much as the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo. It was all over the papers that Tevez was demanding a huge sum of money or else he was off to Real Madrid.

Ferguson later clarified that talks had yet to begin, showing the story of Tevez’s wage demands was completely fabricated. It appears the fact that it was the journo lying and not Ferguson hadn’t reached Tevez before his interview on the radio.

“No. Tevez just wanted to clarify that he hadn’t received an offer,” said Joorabchian. “Everything’s fine. He gets on very well with Ferguson. Everything started with a lie written by an English journalist who wrote that Ferguson had said they made an offer. The truth is there are no problems and he’s going to carry on playing for Manchester United until at least the end of the season.”

With agents so often getting in the way and causing trouble, it’s somewhat of a relief to see Kia Joorabchian trying to resolve the situation.

Oh, but wait.

“A permanent deal?” he added. “It’s hard to know, but from my experience I’d say that anything can happen. Plenty of clubs want him, but I can’t name them.”

United need to sit Tevez down, sooner rather than later, and explain everything that has been going on. Whatever the reason for stalling, they need to make it clear to Tevez that he is wanted.

Still, we looked as though we were fighting a losing battle yesterday, however Tevez’s agent and the club will have now put Tevez straight on the false newspaper story.

This is better news but I don’t think any of us will be able to relax on the issue until a formal contract is offered.