I AM getting fed up of hearing about footballers going ‘on strike’ and spitting their dummies out.

Recently we had the farcical situation at West Ham with Dimitri Payet and it then spread to Leicester and Leonardo Ulloa who felt ‘betrayed’ by the champions and refused to play for them again.

That was until no move transpired on deadline day and the Argentine has had to change his tune or risk being banished to the reserves.

It’s not a new phenomenon, of course, and it is no surprise it usually happens before that bi-annual slamming shut of the transfer window.

Who can forget Peter Odemwingie waiting in his car outside QPR for the transfer that never was?

More recently Saido Berahino became so frustrated with his unhappy situation at West Brom, he took to Twitter to lambast the chairman.

Thank the Lord he finally got his switch away to Stoke last month so we can all move on to new deadline-day tales from Sky’s Jim White.

Then there was Carlos Tevez who had such a strop he jetted home to Argentina to play golf rather than earn his corn at Man City – until he was needed to see the title over the line of course and then Roberto Mancini had a sudden and strange change of stance.

It is a dangerous game for players in my view. Naturally they want the best deal they can get and to be treated fairly as loyalty is a two-way thing.

They also must be happy away from football with their families and you understand it may not always work out.

But by throwing the toys out of the pram to get a move, whether it comes off or not, they only harm their reputation among fans who idolise them.

As supporters, we want our heroes to put everything into the cause, fight for every ball and wear the shirt with pride, even though we accept not all will be fans of our club.

As long as they put a shift in, I don’t care where they are from or who their boyhood team was.

Going back to Payet, he cited personal reasons which is all well and good but surely those same issues were there just a few months ago when he penned an improved extended deal with the Hammers.

Contracts should be contracts and honoured as such in my opinion, unless you are told otherwise and the club does not want you.

None of us can just down tools and refuse to work so why should they be different?