
Standard Chartered have revealed that they want Liverpool to sign Asian players to enhance their profile.
Last year the global banking giant agreed a deal worth £80million with the Reds over four years to replaced long-standing shirt sponsor Carlsberg.
And Gavin Laws, the bank's head of corporate affairs, insisted that recruiting players from Asia - where Standard Chartered conducts most of its business - would vastly increase Liverpool's profile and cited Manchester United's Park Ji-Sung as a prime example.
"The real power for what Liverpool could do for us, and I think for the English Premier League, is if there was a way they could nurture foreign players from Asia ... a great Asian player — you see what Park Ji-sung does for Manchester United," Laws told the Associated Press.
"The markets in Asia and the Middle East are so nationalistic, they are very proud about their countries. [Matches] become huge events. One appearance from a player, say from Dubai in the Premier League, and you'd have the whole of Dubai watching it."
He added: "If Liverpool were winning the league and were keeping at the top of everybody's minds then it's fantastic for a sponsor.
"But I would have thought that Liverpool have had more exposure around the world this season than anybody else ... without the turmoil at the club there wouldn't have been [the publicity[.
"They are a mid-table team, who have an outside chance of getting into the Europa League again."
Although managing director Ian Ayre remains noncommital on extending Kenny Dalglish's stay as manager beyond the end of the season Laws, speaking at the SoccerEx conference, admitted that he would welcome the Scot's long-term presence in the Anfield dugout.
He said: "I'd like to see Kenny as the long term manager — I'm sure the club would. They are going to be talking to him if they aren't talking to him already.
"The Kenny magic is all around the world, everybody believes Kenny can take the club [forward] and that means they stay focused and that means they stay in the newspapers around the world...we are looking for brand awareness."
Meanwhile Liverpool could welcome back Steven Gerrard for Saturday's trip to West Brom after he made considerable progress in his recovery from successful groin surgery earlier this month.
The club's talismanic captain has been sidelined since suffering recurrences of the problem in recent months but may return to action ahead of schedule in the visit to the Hawthorns, where former Kop boss Roy Hodgson will face his former club for the first time.
"He's recovered really well from the surgery that he got so we'll see how he is before we decide whether he's going to be in or out," admitted Dalglish.
"But certainly he's done a lot of training this week, not all of the training that the lads have done but most of it, so we'll wait and see.
"Two weekends ago at Sunderland wee Jay [Spearing] played really well so there's no need for us to be in a rush to put Steven back."
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