FAN LETTERS: Sunderland must take a stand - we need to drive players like Ndong out of the game

Dear Roker Report,

Our troubles with the useless parasites Papy and Ndong sum up everything that is wrong with modern football.

OK, they’ve gone without wages for a while and in Ndong’s case, he’s still going without wages while being contracted to the club but let’s face it, with what footballers can earn based on nothing more than mediocre talent these days, they’re hardly going to be hurting financially! Ndong is sunning himself on a tropical beach, not standing in a breadline! Both of them will have been easily able to absorb this period without an income and ultimately, it will get them exactly what they want.

They both want to be released from their contracts and that’s exactly what Papy now has, and Ndong will soon get. In an ideal world they no doubt hoped that Sunderland would pay them to leave (and their agents too I shouldn’t wonder) but the big thing for them was to be released so they didn’t have to sully themselves playing in League 1 and could negotiate a lucrative contract for themselves elsewhere. Papy is now free to do just that and whichever way you look at it, that is just wrong, wrong, wrong.

Sunderland have forked out a lot of money on this pair and thanks to their disgraceful behaviour, that investment is now worthless. Had they been more professional by returning to work, dedicating themselves to the task in hand and ripping League 1 apart with their ‘unparalleled skill’ then it’s highly likely they could have been sold in January to get at least some return on our investment. Instead, their petulant behaviour, grounded in their massively inflated view of themselves, has cost Sunderland millions while they get exactly what they want.

What ‘should’ happen is that no other club touches them at all and their careers are over but in reality that is sadly unlikely to happen. Before long there will be pictures of their stupid grins on some other team’s website, holding a shirt or scarf they care nothing about and laughing all the way to the bank. The sad thing is that for as long as this is allowed to happen, it will continue to happen and players will abuse both clubs and supporters.

I appreciate that there is a case for not taking them to court for breach of contract and compensation and it may even be a strong case but there has to come a time when a line is drawn in the sand and as a football club and a whole football community we say ‘No more!’

I would start by asking every professional football club in the land for a contribution towards a legal action that will completely change the way players see their responsibilities. If we can’t raise any money that way, I’d take them to court anyway, partly because I don’t see how we could lose and partly because if they are seen to get away with it, it will happen again in the future to a club and it could well be us. These parasitical, overpaid, pampered prima donnas need to be driven out of the game once and for all.

Andrew White

Ed’s Note [Gav]: As much as I’d like to see something like this happen, it just doesn’t seem likely. I think the way that this entire saga plays out will send the right message to players that come here thinking they can take the mick - we won’t tolerate it, and if you try it on you can expect zero protection in the public eye.

More clubs need to do just that - this sort of stuff probably goes on up and down the country but, because clubs are scared of ruining the reputations of players that they feel have a high monetary value, we hear nothing about it.

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