COMMENT: Sunderland skipper needs to show more respect

Sunderland AFC football player Max Power leaves South Tyneside Magistrates Court on a speeding offence.

That he’s well within his rights to state his case when fighting a driving ban in court is not in question.

But if he thought his claims of exceptional hardship while raking in more than £17,000 a month would fly with local magistrates, he was very much mistaken.

Sympathy was in even shorter supply from those reading the details of the court case online.

Sunderland fans are fiercely loyal to the men who pull on the red and white of their favourite team, but they don’t suffer fools gladly.

And the Black Cats captain has been foolish with the claims he made in court this week.

Power and his lawyers may have thought pleading poverty was a good legal move, but in these times of great hardship in the North East it was never going to win him many friends in the community where he plies his trade.

The Sunderland skipper may think he’s suffering exceptional hardship, but that whopping pay packet he receives is thanks to the thousands of ordinary folk who for years have been forking out at the turnstiles to cheer on their heroes. Ordinary people facing uncertain futures in this pandemic and who can only dream of five figure monthly salaries.

Max Power needs to recognise the privileged position he holds and show a little more humility and respect for the people who put him there.