Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard is amazed at the club's plans for their new stadium.

The £300million new Anfield will be built in nearby Stanley Park, and Gerrard admitted the scheme was a key component in his decision to sign a new five-year contract this summer.

It will incorporate an enlarged Kop that will house almost as many fans as the previous standing terrace of the 1960s. Currently the all-seated Kop at Anfield holds 12,000, but the revised plans will increase that to 18,000 - virtually the capacity of the old stand in the Shankly days.

The revival of the 'spirit of the Kop' has hugely impressed Gerrard who said: "After spending five minutes looking at the plans I was just completely blown away by it.

"It is amazing and the best thing about it is that it is so different to any other.

"We will have our own identity stamped all over this stadium and that is how it should be.

"We are Liverpool Football Club, we expect the best and this will be the best."

He added: "I have played in some great stadiums but this is something special and it is so important that we are not seen to be copying another club.

"The fact that a massive Kop stand will be incorporated into the new stadium is great. As a supporter myself, I know what to look for in a stadium and I am sure all our fans are going to love it.

"We all know the level of noise 40,000 Liverpudlians can make at Anfield so I cannot even begin to describe what 60,000-plus can do.

"I cannot wait to lead the team out there. The prospect of this was one of the major factors in me signing a long-term deal and I just hope I am still around when the day comes for us to play our first game in it."

Team-mate Jamie Carragher added: "The new plans are spectacular.

"The designers have come up with something completely unique. I have never seen a football ground like it.

"There are a lot of great stadiums across Europe but too many of them look the same nowadays.

"A club of our stature, tradition and history deserves something more than a general bowl-shape design, so it is great for the designers to have come up with this."

He added: "The fans will love it, especially when they see the plans for the new Kop.

"It will have the feel of an old ground, with the four distinctive stands, but it will be very much a new stadium.

"It provides me with the perfect motivation to remain at the top of my game because I want to still be in the team when we eventually move there."