With the weight of social media opinion seeming to be overwhelmingly against Eni Aluko,it was pretty much a case of shooting fish in a barrel for Simon Jordan. And he duly delivered the odd withering put-down.

Here is one. “The language that you use, it’s steeped in a sense of entitlement. The sheer weight of the entitlement that you appear to have would re-sink the Titanic.”

That snippet from the talkSPORT show seemed to go down well with a lot of people, with a lot of men, it has to be said. But you could forgive some female listeners if they thought that if it's a woman, it's self-entitlement, whereas if it's a man, it's self-belief.

Aluko is a confident character, that much is for sure. And is believing you are good at what you do such a bad thing? A lot of people have been making character judgements without really knowing the person. That is how the media and social media works.

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We admire Ian Wright and we admire Laura Woods, understandably so. We don’t really know them either but they come across really well and come across as lovely people. If Aluko can make enemies of them, she must be a wrong ‘un, the thinking obviously goes.

And in the case of Wright, that is where Aluko has taken a very considerable mis-step. It is why she initially had to apologise to him. That Wright did not accept the apology is his absolute right.

And for Aluko to then again bring up Wright - and what she thought he should or should not have done behind the broadcasting scenes - was ill-advised and badly thought out. To say the least. But there has been a pile-on that has not been particularly pleasant to see.

Jordan and a lot of others suggest - some in more colourful terms than others - that Aluko is not seen as much in a punditry role as she has been solely because of her talent as a pundit. Fair enough.

But Aluko also has a point when she says she has been a pundit for major channels for a long time. She was the first female pundit on Match of the Day in 2014 and has had regular work since. She is not basing any self-entitlement on pure delusion.

For what it is worth, as a pundit, I reckon Aluko is better than some and not as good as some. Simple as that.

But the debate about her capabilities as an analyst - a debate which her own comments have provoked - distracts from what Aluko has achieved and the important role she has played, and can play, in the advancement of women’s football. For all the flak she is getting, Aluko, don’t forget, will go down as a trailblazer.

That is why she was inducted into the National Football Museum Hall of Fame very recently. As a player, she won over 100 caps for England, and her club achievements were considerable, ending her career with a stellar spell at Juventus.

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As well as a media career, she has been a sporting director here and in the States and a constant voice in support of the women’s game. Her work earned her an MBE.

At the end of the appearance on the radio show with Jim White and Jordan, she said: “I feel like I have earned the right to talk about women’s football. I think I have earned the right to think about what the future is like for women’s football.”

She has. And for all these accusations of self-entitlement - and for all the flak now coming her way - Eni Aluko can still be a force for good in the women’s game.

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