Former Liverpool chief Christian Purslow has taken aim at the club's owners over their handling of Philippe Coutinho's sale.
Purslow believes the £160m move to Barcelona was mishandled by Fenway Sports Group.
He told Sky Sports: "To effectively put money in the bank and take a player away - any football expert would say the likelihood of winning the Champions League without him has reduced, the likelihood of coming fourth is reduced, and they have already gone out of the FA Cup - is in pure footballing terms, a gamble.
"Strategy and business is a very artificial separation because this sport centres around what happens on the field. There's no use to Liverpool strategically to consistently not win trophies and, God forbid, not get top four.
"I would have thought the businessmen in the ownership group would not needed to have taken that gamble. I would have expected – if they needed to give the player certainty, that he was going to fulfil his dream and go to Barcelona – then the deal could have been done with either money now with a loan back, or a contract deferred delivery of player and money in May.
"Neither of which, by the way, would have actually been the best way to maximise the value of the player because come the summer.
"This player is a starter for Brazil, playing brilliantly. If Paris St-Germain, Real Madrid and Barcelona are all in for Coutinho on the back of a World Cup, this player may have been £200million.
"The winners were Barcelona, the losers were Liverpool – other than their bank balance. Fans don't care about bank balances, they care about winning."
Source: tribalfootball.com