Mario Balotelli’s agent, Mino Raiola, believes Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp did not treat his client with any “respect.”
Balotelli moved to French side Nice from Liverpool on a free transfer last week after Klopp made it clear the forward had no future at the club.
The Italian did not appear in a single preseason friendly and was left behind to train with the under-23 side while the first team toured the United States.
Raiola told talkSPORT on Monday morning that he does not rate the German’s ability as a coach and feels he did not treat Balotelli in the right way.
“At the end of the day, he [Balotelli] was a player of Liverpool and you need to treat him with respect,” Raiola said. “And he [Klopp] didn’t do that.
“Mario asked several times to have a friendly match. You can train all you want but, at the end of the day, you need 90 minutes, you need a friendly. He never considered him for 60 days.
“I’m not judging him as a trainer — I don’t like him as a trainer at all — but you have to let him play.”
Despite the outburst, super-agent Raiola does not believe his comments will have any affect on dealings with Klopp or Liverpool in the future.
“I don’t need to go to Klopp to do business,” he added. “If Klopp wants a player that I represent and he wants to talk to me, good. If he doesn’t want to talk to me then I can say to my player: ‘he doesn’t want to talk to me, you can choose another agent or go with a lawyer.’
“I will never be standing in the middle of the interest of my player but it doesn’t mean I have to shut up when I see things are not being done in a good way.
“I have no problem to talk to Liverpool tomorrow and offer them one of my players. If I have to be afraid of speaking my mind because I lose a deal, then I lose my powers. I’d rather go walking through life than living on my knees.”
Balotelli endured a nightmare stay at Liverpool and only managed to score one Premier League goal for the club since joining in the summer of 2014.
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