Liverpool's Super Mario needs to stop acting the adult and be one...

Some talk about the 24-year-old’s time at Manchester City and former manager Roberto Mancini’s words that the Italian forward is destined for greatness.

Some prefer to bring up his misdemeanors; fireworks from bathroom windows, falling asleep in the luggage hold of a train and numerous written off supercars.

Personally I can’t help but think of Tom Hanks' sublime performance in the 1988 Film, Big.

The film focusses on Hanks' character wanting to grow from a child to an adult, both physically and mentally.

He makes a wish to a fairground gypsy and wakes up the next day an adult.

Moving to the city to find work, Hanks rents an apartment and fills it with kids’ toys   it is exactly how you would imagine a kid kitting out a flat with a trampoline and pin ball machine, a vendor that spits out endless cans of Coca-Cola and bunk beds.

This brings me back to Super Mario, a child in an adult’s body, only this time with unlimited funding.

A dangerous combo, Mario spends his endless pit of money on cars, earrings in the shape of dollars and flash clothes, while still having the naivety of a pre-pubescent 12-year-old.

It has been brought up by umpteen managers, pundits and players that Balotelli needs to grow up and grow up fast.

In his last stint in the Premier League, Balotelli netted 20 goals in 54 appearances. Not a bad record and at a price of just £16m, (yes, only five million more than Fulham paid Leeds for Ross McCormack) Liverpool boss Brendon Rodgers could have bagged a bargain.

But filling the boots of one of the greatest footballers in the world, Luis Suarez, won’t be easy for a man who has been known to spend the majority of matches with his hands on hips, watching his team mates work hard for the cause.

He could do worse than taking a look at the Barcelona front man and seeing how he turned haters into admirers, admittedly turning them back to haters with his World Cup exploits, through hard work, graft and guile.

Rodgers won’t have any passengers in his team so if Balotelli is to make the most of his somewhat stop-start career; he will have to change his ways.

The time is now for Balotelli to wake up and realise that his career is slipping by in a series of tantrums and bust ups, the time is now for Balotelli to stop playing the adult and actually be one. Here’s to wishful thinking …