I AM surely not alone in being sick to death of the antics of one Mario Balotelli. And don’t anyone please tell me he is a “character”.

That is just an excuse for wholly inappropriate behaviour both on and off the pitch.

Let the truth be told. The Manchester City wild child is a shirt shy of a full kit.

Barely a day goes by without lurid headlines detailing yet another misdemeanour or indiscretion. Enough is enough.

Mind you, Balotelli fits in perfectly with this Premier League season scarred by Tevez and Suarez and we still await the trial of England captain John Terry over alleged racist abuse.

So I say thank God for today, Thursday, April 5, 2012.

It is the birthday of Sir Tom Finney, 90 years young.

The younger reader will most probably never have heard of this gentleman footballer nicknamed “The Preston Plumber.”

That is the job he did to supplement maximum wages of £12 in winter and £10 in summer.

It is a far cry from Balotelli’s reported £200,000 a week and who couldn't lick the boots of a man acknowledged by seasoned observers as the finest English footballer of all time.

Finney belonged to an era when he carried his boots to work in a brown paper bag – and on the bus. No baby Bentleys for footballers then.

The immortal Bill Shankly was mentor to young Finney at Deepdale long before he introduced greatness to Liverpool Football Club.

The canny Scot insisted to his dying day that “Tommy Finney was the greatest footballer I have ever seen or played with. Nae argument.”

He was the first footballer twice crowned Footballer of the Year in 1954 and 1957.

He played 473 games for his home town and only club Preston North End, being capped 76 times by England and scoring 30 goals.

But statistics do not capture his genius. He was so naturally talented he could play on either flank and through the middle, where he rarely put a foot wrong.

“Matthews or Finney,” was one of the great terrace talking-points of the day. “Not in Finney’s class,” was the considered verdict of Shanks.

Oh, just one other thing to add – Finney was never, ever booked in a career spanning 1946 to 1960.

Former England captain Jimmy Armfield said: “The greatest compliment I can ever pay Ryan Giggs is that in his younger days at Old Trafford there was a similarity with Finney.”

Balotelli, meanwhile, takes his indiscipline to the Emirates on Sunday and goodness knows what he will get up to.

City then will be eight points behind United, who have a home banker against QPR in the early kick-off.

“He is out of control,” says Pete Hawkins the former Terras’ winger and ex-pro with North-ampton Town.

He is proprietor of The Cactus Tea Rooms on Weymouth Esplanade.

He adds: “In my day players never clashed on the pitch. Balotelli wants to fight everyone.

“What sort of role model is he? And what an awful advert for the game.

“There were always clashes in training though. I remember lunging at Graham Carr at North-ampton and he chased me all over the pitch.

“He later took me to Weymouth and he is now the chief scout at Newcastle and doing a fantastic job.”

On Saturday a proud city of Preston will pay homage to Sir Tom when ticket prices will be reduced – against MK Dons at Deepdale – for a day devoted to celebrate 90 glorious years of its favourite son.

And it will put a pampered, spoilt little brat like Mario Balotelli firmly in his place.