Michail Antonio backs Liverpool's Philippe Coutinho to force Barcelona move: 'Can you give someone a bad name for wanting to be ambitious?'

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Philippe Coutinho has been backed to force through his Liverpool sale to Barcelona and is blameless in the saga, according to West Ham winger Michail Antonio.

Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool turned down a bid of £90million last week and are adamant that the Brazilian will not be sold.

West Ham boss Slaven Bilic said player power has become a problem in the Premier League, having seen it happen with wantaway Dimitri Payet last season.

 Barcelona target Philippe Coutinho may be kept against his wishes by Liverpool this summer

West Ham midfielder Michail Antonio has backed Coutinho to force through a move to Barca

Ironically, Liverpool have been linked with Manuel Lanzini as Coutinho's potential replacement

Giving an alternative view, Antonio said: 'Can you give someone a bad name for wanting to be ambitious? For wanting to move onto bigger things?

'That person is ambitious, that person wants to do stuff, that person wants to move on with his life.

'In a normal job, if there was a chance for you to get promoted, are you going to go, "No, no, no – I want to stay in the exact same spot I'm in now". Or, are you going to strive and move forward and be better?

'There are ways and means of doing it. But if that opportunity is there and you' ve done what you needed to do and have been the perfect servant to the club, and the club tells you "No, stay there". There's only one option for you.

Antonio can understand why a player of Coutinho's quality would want to join Barcelona

Klopp insists there is nothing new to say on Coutinho, who is currently out with a back injury

Klopp claims that there is nothing wrong with Coutinho's attitude, despite his transfer request

'Say in Coutinho's spot, he handed in a transfer request. He did every single thing he possibly could do. He stayed, he trained, he worked hard – he stayed away from it – and Liverpool say, "No we're keeping him".

'And then he handed in a transfer request because he had no other option. But he's been the perfect servant for them for the past three or four years.

'His opportunity has arisen to take that massive step and the club are going to keep you where you are. He had no other option to do what he did.'

Coutinho signed a five-year £150,000-a-week contract with Liverpool in January, meaning he is tied to the club until 2022.

'When the club wants you and you've got the opportunity to go further in life, you need to leave because you can get on to better things,' Antonio also told talkSPORT.

'There's nothing you can do about it.'