Mascherano 'hoping to stay'

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The Argentina midfielder is registered as a Reds player on a long-term loan from owners MSI, so the deal did not need to be completed before the transfer deadline last Thursday.

However, the 23-year-old hopes the £18.6million transfer will go through shortly and told the club's official website: "It's not finished yet but I am hoping to stay here."

He added: "I have a lot of confidence that after the next week I will be able to say 'everything is right and I am staying here in Liverpool'.

"We now need to wait. We are very close but we need to talk again. I think everything will be okay. I've waited a long time, so I can wait one week more.

Liverpool are believed to have verbally agreed a four-year contract with Mascherano, with the fee being paid to the player's owners in instalments.

Mascherano played his 26th game for the club in Saturday's 3-0 win over Sunderland, and said: "When it was 0-0 at half-time there were no harsh words like the boss delivered last week when we were playing Havant.

"We knew we would have chances in the second half, so we weren't feeling so bad at half-time. We knew we could do something to win the game. It was just important we kept calm.

"At half-time we were told to keep going and work hard. We weren't playing really well, but it wasn't so bad either. We had to keep working together.

"The difference was that we scored early in the second half and you could see that gave us a lot of confidence. Once you've scored, you become calmer."