Javier Mascherano wants Argentina teammate Carlos Tevez to join him at Liverpool next season.
Tevez has just won a second Premier League winners' medal with Manchester United, but the striker's two-year loan deal expires at the end of the season and a permanent contract looks uncertain despite the Red Devils fans wanting him to stay.
Man United manager Alex Ferguson claims Tevez's financial demands are unrealistic and negotiations are on hold until after Wednesday's Champions League final with Barcelona.
Tevez says he is resigned to leaving Old Trafford - but not necessarily the Premier League. With his family settled in England's northwest, Liverpool could be an attractive destination for both professional and personal reasons, and Mascherano agrees.
"It would be great if Carlos could come here because I know how good he is,'' Mascherano told The Associated Press. "But maybe it's a difficult situation. I don't know exactly what is happening. The only thing I can say is that he is a great player and a great person.
"I don't speak to him about football situations just about his family. It's something that maybe the manager has to talk (to him) about.''
Liverpool would have to pay around 25 million pounds ($38 million) to the investment company that owns his rights and initially brought both Mascherano and Tevez from Brazilian club Corinthians to West Ham in 2006.
Tevez's work-rate and tendency to score important goals could provide the missing ingredient to a Liverpool team that lost the Premier League title race to Manchester United by four points. The Reds still appear to rely too heavily on the attacking skills of Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard. Injuries to both of them restricted their partnership to barely a third of league matches.
The Reds amassed their highest points tally since the start of the Premier League in the 1992-93 season, but Mascherano is still hurting that he couldn't help deliver the club's first league title since 1990.
"I'm not feeling good. We wanted to win the league and we were very close,'' Mascherano said. "It's not easy when you have really good players and you finish in second place - it's difficult to understand.
"Maybe if some players come to improve the team, it would be great for us for next season. It doesn't need improving too much, maybe a little bit. We need to improve at home. We dropped a lot of points at home because we didn't have that experience to finish the games, but next season we will have the experience maybe and it will be better for us.''
Liverpool needs to keep its best players such as midfielder Xabi Alonso and improve the depth of its squad, says Mascherano.
"If we can keep this squad and improve this squad it will be really good for the future,'' Mascherano said. "We will be fighting in all the competitions, not just league. (Manager) Rafa (Benitez) will work really hard to improve the squad and maybe next season we will be stronger.''
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