The touching moment between Michael Beale and Sunderland fans against Plymouth Argyle

Transcript

00:00 And it's a lesson, isn't it, that sometimes we don't always know what's going on beneath the surface.

00:06 It was a stressful moment for him coming into a new job, a stressful family situation.

00:11 Obviously, Sullivan's form had dipped. There was a lot of noise around the club.

00:14 There was a lot of ex-Rangers pundits, you know, completely flying into him on talk sport and whatnot.

00:20 So a difficult time for him.

00:21 But thankfully, Sullivan seemed to have come out of the other side of it for the moment.

00:25 And so does Michael Bale with seven points in three games.

00:29 Yeah, I think it's probably a reminder, I think, as you say, that not just head coaches, players,

00:37 everyone in football really, who we sort of judge on a daily basis that we don't know what's going on behind the scenes, I guess.

00:43 And, you know, they are human beings, just like we are.

00:47 And you should always bear that in mind, I think, when you, you know, fairly sort of discuss.

00:52 And what I would say is even in the very acrimonious moments, Michael Bale always said that, you know,

00:59 I've no problem being judged on football and people have opinions on the football team.

01:04 That was never an issue.

01:05 He very, very much disagreed with some people's assessments of his football team and the performances.

01:10 But, you know, he'd be the first to say that's life, that's the beauty of football.

01:14 So probably an important distinction there.

01:16 And as you say, really, I guess a reminder to us all that we've got to be careful.

01:22 As you say, when we judge these people, because they are ultimately human beings.

01:26 But I wasn't in any way surprised by what happened on Saturday.

01:30 I was very, very moved about it.

01:32 I thought it was a really sort of tender, poignant moment.

01:35 And it was, you know, the equivalent of a bit of a...