Barcelona: Boateng: Dembele is like a little boy who has been thrown into a giant pool

You can't blame Boateng for taking the opportunity, but when I played very little football, it could hardly be surprising when he began to feel unhappy.

"Dembele is like a small child thrown into a giant pool, " Boateng admitted in an interview with Sport Bild.

"He earns a lot of money, everything he does is public, he needs to be guided in the right direction, but if he doesn't learn then that's his fault.

"I've cost 150 million euros but doesn't even know how everything works yet. He just wants to play football."

One of the common gripes people have with the younger footballers in the modern era is that they earn too much money too quickly, and Boateng I echo such a sentiment.

"The problem, and it's not just with Dembele, is that they receive too much money, "he explained.

"It can't be than an 18-year-old man earns a net salary of four million euros a year.

"Yet, if he does, then that money must be invested immediately so he sees as little of it as possible."

With his time in Catalonia having come to its natural end at the conclusion of the 2019/20 campaign, the 32-year-old is now back in Italy with Fiorentina, however he doesn't look back on his Barcelona adventure with any real reverence.

"To be honest, it wasn't a good decision for me to go to Barcelona, "I have detailed.

"I barely played. I wasn't behind Luis Suarez but was actually behind the one who was behind Suarez.

"I couldn't wait to play football again. I had to try and not let myself break mentally."