This is the Blood Red Podcast from the Liverpool Echo, giving you the inside track on all the big talking points from Anfield.

It's the bottom line podcast here on the Blood Red channel courtesy of the

Liverpool Echo I'm Guy Clark welcome along as the Reds begin their far

east tour of Thailand and Singapore I'm joined by our business of football writer

Dave Powell to chat through the implications

financially for the Reds as well as taking on Manchester United, but what the tour means for

the sponsorship dealings ahead of the new season getting underway.

Dave, I hope you're well and as I say the tour underway and one of those isn't it as

soon as you see Liverpool touchdown you realize just the global magnitude and scale of the football club

we talk so often about the reach it has around the world but it's not really until you see all those

people you realize actually just how big it all is.

Oh it's it's enormous that the pull of the football club and the global reach that it has is

there's only about three or four teams, five maybe in European football that can

match that kind of football fandom that the Reds enjoy over. It's not just Asia it's you know in the

US etc but specifically in Asia I think you know

Manchester United were one of the first to tap into that that market back in the late 1990s when they were going out on

pre-season tours and they saw the value in that and Liverpool have really made strides in that respect and from our boots on the ground with

Ian Doyle I believe in him speaking to some of the locals he said that the

the pendulum has now swung the other way in terms of Liverpool's direction in terms of how popular they are in Thailand.

So I'll be intrigued to see how it pans out

obviously the United Game as we speak.

It's happening just prior to this going out.

...