Go On the Football365!

Football365 wrote:

Dear The Sun,

This is just getting silly. Nay, it has gone beyond silliness. It's now offensive, objectionable and toxic.

Today, a story appears as the back page lead of your newspaper criticising Fabio Capello's England team selection for the upcoming Euro 2012 qualifiers, before Capello has even made this selection.

Shaun Custis writes: 'Donkey Fabio Capello has stuck a hoof into England's brave new world - after just one game.

'The gormless Italian vowed to rebuild after our World Cup debacle by bringing in young players.

'But the silly ass has ruled Arsenal whizkid Jack Wilshere, 18, out of next month's vital Euro qualifiers.'

This is written under the headline 'Jackass picks just Cap it all', with a pair of donkey ears super-imposed on Capello's head in the accompanying picture.

'Jackass'. 'Silly ass'. 'Gormless'. Is this really what journalism has come to? Is this really what you want to be doing?

And what is the basis of The Sun's latest attack? The omission of 'whizkid' Wilshere, who apparently earned 'rave reviews' for his two - two - starts for Arsenal so far.

Whoever was doing this 'raving', it wasn't The Sun. Wilshere didn't warrant a mention in the paper's report of Arsenal's 6-0 win over Blackpool, while the best thing the paper could say about his performance against Liverpool (in a report written by Custis) was that he will 'grow in confidence the more games he plays', before awarding him five out of ten for his showing.

The other justification for insulting one of the most successful managers in the game is the omission of Andy Carroll, a player with eight Premier League starts to his name.

Truly, do you believe this to be justification for such descriptions as 'jackass', 'silly ass' and 'gormless', or whatever else you will be calling Capello next time?

We appreciate the consistency of The Sun's view. The Custis article is the latest in a relentless campaign waged by The Sun to remove Capello from the England job.

But is this really helping? Is this type of name-calling based on such flimsy matters, appropriate? Criticism is fine, but the Custis diatribe could never be described as 'constructive'. It is, in our humble opinion, a new low. Perhaps for backpage tabloid journalism, perhaps for The Sun, perhaps even for old-fashioned debate and discussion. Either way, it's as low as we can remember.

Football365 has largely backed Capello, but even we agree that he has made mistakes, particularly in South Africa. However, we have not forgotten his success at club level, and that he guided England through a near-flawless qualification campaign for the World Cup.

Nor do we know of an English manager who we believe will be a better man for the job. As for the 'rip it up and start again' approach, it is far too simplistic. The assumption that because the current crop of players failed, the next generation will automatically be better, is horribly - and probably fatally - flawed.

Our fear is that this campaign is being waged not because the tabloid press truly believe that Capello is in the wrong, or that ignoring Wilshere and Carroll makes him a donkey, but largely out of spite because they didn't get their way after the summer and he stayed on.

We invite Custis, or indeed anyone from The Sun, to write to Football365 to justify this latest article, and indeed their continuing stance. And we promise to publish their right of reply.

Regards,

Football365