Please, Can We All Just Lay Off Mason Greenwood?

If you're uncomfortable with the complete and utter vilifying of Mason Greenwood over the past week or so, then you're not the only one.

At this stage, it's pretty clear that the 18-year-old, along with one time England team-mate Phil Foden, screwed up in Iceland. He admitted as much in a heartfelt apology, issued through Manchester United's official channels, and he deserves the internal consequences that will come his way.

Regardless of the fact he is still basically a child, he's been a professional footballer for long enough that he should have known better. But he will now, so lesson learned, story over. Right?

Well, no.

Certain newspapers have been unable to leave it alone, and the reporting has drawn haunting parallels to the Raheem Sterling witch-hunt of a couple of years ago. They've smelled blood, and now everything he does - whether it's showing up at training, leaving training or having a conversation with his manager, is being singled out and tied to his mistakes.

The desperate efforts to justify the rapidly growing agenda against yet another young, black footballer, inevitably did yield fruit. One tabloid sourced a video in which he appears to inhale laughing gas, and have since held it up like a trophy; a symbol of their unceasing service to the public's right to know.

The 'story' paints Greenwood as having made a 'fresh' mistake, apparently having failed to learn from his England duty indiscretions. The fact that the video was actually taken weeks ago, and therefore contradicts their entire narrative, is left for much later.

The controversy has been used as an excuse to drag up every one of his moves and place it under the microscope, usually with an alarming attention to detail and a scornful, patronising tone. One piece on the 'hippy crack' saga pointed out that a female friend in attendance, who committed the heinous crime of wearing ripped jeans.

A story was even run on the fact he failed to smile when he showed up at Carrington for training.

Comparing this with how Foden has been treated is a pretty easy game of spot the difference. A far softer touch has been given to the Man City midfielder, and though it's still a bit weird that the media is so interested in the off-field antics of a 20-year-old, claims that he attempted to cheat on his partner a second time were kept in the chamber until Sunday evening.

'Look, we're not racist, we're criticising the white guy too.'

The vilification of Greenwood is masked as sneering, moral righteousness, and the fact that Foden has also been called into question is being used as a further smokescreen to justify it. But anyone with a conscience and a brain can see the situation for what it is.

He's made mistakes, sure, but dragging them into the headlines ten times a day is doing nothing but stirring hate against a young man whose status and ethnicity make him vulnerable.

That's not good, so let's stop it, and give the kid a break before things get completely out of hand.