Liverpool FC managing director delighted as money rolls in for struggling team

Christian Purslow, the managing director of English soccer club Liverpool FC, has praised the club's off-field performance in a season that has seen them struggle to perform on the field.

Though Liverpool failed to reach the knock-out stages of the Uefa Champions League, have been eliminated from both domestic cups and have seen an expected title challenge become a scrap for fourth place, the Anfield club has secured a record shirt sponsorship deal with Standard Chartered worth £80 million.

Liverpool have also secured lucrative commercial deals with the likes of 188Bet and Turespaña, while a new website has attracted millions of users and the club's first steps into social media have seen its Facebook page become the most popular of any Premier League club. The various innovations and partnerships have left Purslow claiming things on the business side "could not have gone better".

However, the club has still been unable to secure financing for a new stadium, with Purslow saying last week that he expects new investment into the club, currently owned by American businessmen George Gillett and Tom Hicks, to be a necessary forerunner to any bank providing the funds for the project.

"Obviously the most important aspect of any club is how we are doing on the field and I don't think any of us had expected the first half of the season that we have had," Purslow told the Liverpool FC official website. "That said, I'm very confident now that the vast majority of our players are fit and well, we'll see a transformation in our results in the second half of the season.

"But in terms of the business side of Liverpool, day to day things could not have gone better. Commercially, I think the business is better than I expected and performing better than I expected. And obviously my number one priority remains the strategic issue of bringing in new investment - and that is probably about where I would have expected it to be.

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He added: "Going into the New Year I hoped that the initial process would have identified a smaller group of serious people who are interested in investing in Liverpool - and that's where we are today. While there can be no guarantees, I am confident and optimistic that in the next couple of months one of them will be brought to fruition."