Journo Claims Klopp Didn't Mind Losing Coutinho After Back Antics & Player's Dressing Room Speech

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has no qualms over losing Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona.

That is the opinion of Independent.ie journalist Simon Hughes, who reckons the German is used to losing his best players after going through such circumstances on several occasions whilst at Borussia Dortmund with the likes of Nuri Sahin, Mario Gotze and Robert Lewandowski all leaving.

Coutinho made the switch to Barca on Saturday, signing for the Catalan giants, with £142m going the other way.

It was no secret that the Brazilian had tried forcing his way out of the club in the summer after he was told he wouldn't be sold.

There was the sulky dressing room speech to his teammates, which Klopp noted whilst sharing his thoughts on the transfer on Sunday. There was also the feigning of a back problem that saw the player miss the start of Liverpool's season.

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“Philippe was insistent with me, the owners and even his teammates this was a move he was desperate to make happen,” Klopp told Liverpool's official website in the wake of the player's departure.

Hughes claims to believe that Klopp was not as desperate to keep Coutinho as he would have us believe, with the player's antics leaving him disenchanted and indifferent.

"Coutinho had been complaining of back pain and when a scan revealed nothing was wrong with him, it was decided then it was better to play along with the façade - publically at least - in an attempt to try and limit the attention around his behaviour and allow Liverpool’s season to begin with less disruption than there would have been otherwise," Hughes writes.

We will never know whether or not Klopp really feels that way about his former player unless he reveals it himself. But Hughes thoughts on the matter really aren't all that far fetched.