RAHEEM Sterling's comments on Sunday that the national media fuel racism were spot on, and should give the tabloids a much needed wake-up call.

Earlier this year I defended the England midfielder for his anti-gun tattoo after a national paper ran a front page criticising it. Many commentators later picked up on the story and slammed the young footballer - despite him stressing the gun tattoo reflected a vow he made to "never touch a gun", after his father was shot dead when he was a boy.

What I didn't have a chance to explore back in May was the endless attacks on Sterling in the national press in recent years. This has included stories of him being flashy in buying private jets or top of the range cars, or too tight when he shopped at Primark or having a love of Greggs pasties.

When you think you rarely see similar stories on his white England team mates the penny drops - there appears a racist undertone.

In an Instagram post, after Sterling was allegedly the victim of racist abuse from Chelsea fans on Saturday, the Manchester City midfielder decided to make a stand for the next generation of players currently coming through, pointing out some truths.

Sterling highlighted stories on Tosin Adarabioyo and Phil Foden buying houses for their mothers. Both stories were written this year about players from the same team, and of similar age. But the headlines referred to 21-year-old defender Adarabioyo, a black player, spending £2.25m on a property "despite having never started a Premier League match", while midfielder Foden, who is white, "buys a £2m home for his mum" to "set up a future".

"Look at how the newspapers get their message across for the young black player and then for the young white player," Sterling wrote.

"I think this is unacceptable - this young black kid looked at in a bad light, which helps fuel racism."

Of course, loudmouth Piers Morgan, a former tabloid editor, got involved jumping to the defence of Fleet Street colleagues saying of the post "I say no racism here whatsoever" - perfectly demonstrating how we got to this position in the first place.

No ifs, no buts, everything in Sterling's social media post perfectly summed up a disgusting tabloid agenda that has been overlooked for years. It is time things finally changed.