Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp says decision to sell Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona was 'easy' in the end

Liverpool simply had to sell as keeping Coutinho until the summer 'would not work out'

Jürgen Klopp says Liverpool had no choice but to let Philippe Coutinho go (Getty)

Jurgen Klopp claimed on Friday that it was ultimately an “easy” decision to allow Philippe Coutinho to leave Liverpool this month as it had become clear that the club had no choice but to sanction his £142m move to Barcelona.

Coutinho completed his long-awaited switch to the Nou Camp earlier this week, in what will be world football’s second-most expensive transfer until Kylian Mbappé finalises his £166m move to Paris Saint-Germain later this year.

Having stood firm and rebuffed all offers from Barcelona for the playmaker during the summer, Klopp and Liverpool finally conceded defeat last Saturday after it became clear that there was “100 per cent no chance” of Coutinho staying for the second half of the season.

“It was clear,” the Liverpool manager said on Friday, speaking publicly for the first time since Coutinho’s departure. “It was not that we had a talk and he said my head is somewhere else, it was just clear after we spoke that it would not work out.

“We knew it when the club tried everything. We had a lot of talks about different things, how we can do this or that, but if somebody denies things like that then it is clear the decision is done. At some point you need to accept it and that is what we did.”

Klopp dismissed suggestions that he was attempting to protect the club by allowing a wantaway player to leave. “I didn't see it like that,” he said, before reiterating that Coutinho’s determination to push through a move left Liverpool with only one option.

“Final decision, if I would have said 'no way', the club would have said: 'OK, let's try.' But it was clear there was no chance. It's not that there was an open question or something and in the end 50 per cent pro, 50 per cent contra and I had to make the decision. In the end, it was quite easy.”

The Liverpool manager added: “You cannot use him if he's not 100 per cent. Philippe Coutinho is a world class player but if he's not 100 per cent, he's not that international class, Premier League class, then you lose the grip.

“You need to be here [mentally]. If you get an injury or if something happens in a game - you miss a ball, stuff like that - you think: 'I would love to miss it in Barcelona instead of Liverpool.’

“You know players are different, I've had this very often. When they've lost one opportunity, you will never get the same player again.”

Klopp is confident he will be given all the resources he requires to replace Coutinho and insisted that the £142m would not be used to pay for the club’s recent transfer activity, namely the record signings of Virgil van Dijk and Naby Keita.

“You know I'm not a manager who counts all the money and goes to the owners and say we need this. The owners are completely on my side,” he said.

“It is not that they say: ‘You've got this but we've done this and this and so you cannot spend.’ Everything is fine. We have no money issues at this club. We will get all the money.

“Always since I'm in here we can have all the monies from transfers and more if needed. Nobody told me: ‘No way.’”

Coutinho was unveiled as a Barcelona player on Monday (Getty)

There will, however, be a Coutinho-shaped hole in Klopp’s side when unbeaten Premier League leaders Manchester City visit Anfield on Sunday, as Liverpool prepare to take on the country’s best team without their most influential player.

It remains to be seen whether the Brazilian will be replaced before the close of the current transfer window on 31 January but Klopp assured supporters that new signings will come, either by the end of the month or in the summer.

“In the end, if you lose five or six players then obviously it can be a little different if you cannot replace them, but we will bring in other players, that's for sure,” he said. “If we do it in this window, I don't know.”