RIP Gary Speed

With a heavy heart this news reminds me that my dad died aged 42!I was 18 and remember thinking at 42 he (me dad)had,had a good innings.FFS its no age to die is it?RIP Gary lad.More importantly,hope the media t***s leave the family in peace.A lovely guy left us today.

RIP Gary Speed 

a great pro and a great loss to football today, thoughts and prayers with his family

RIP Gary

Death
On 27 November 2011, the Football Association of Wales announced that Speed had died.[2] The Telegraph and ITN reported that Speed had committed suicide by hanging at his home in Huntington, Cheshire.[36][37] Cheshire Constabulary announced that they were not treating Speed's death as suspicious.[38][2] Friends reported their shock at the news; Speed had appeared as a guest on Football Focus only a number of hours before his death.

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RIP Gary Speed.

Played well for Bolton

Totally mind numbing, he leaves a wife and two lads to mourn his passing, hopefully they will be given the privacy to try and deal with the horror that confronts them.

                                  RIP Gary Speed

                 

Still can't quite believe this has happened.  It's so sad.  From a selfish stance, Wales has suffered a big loss.  I was highly critical of his management style in his first few games managing Wales, but he sure turned that around in the last few games he was in charge.  I was loving the way he had us playing.  You made a difference Gary.  We will miss you.

But, more importantly, he leaves his family behind.  My thoughts are with them, what an awful time for them.

Poor Gary, he seemed fine on Football Focus, who could have known?

YNWA Gary and your family.

Totally shocked by this terrible news, football and the world has lost a genuinely good guy in Gary, my thoughts go out to his wife and young boys who must be devastated, RIP Gary Speed, you were a credit to your nation and a credit to the clubs you served, godbless Gary, You'll Never Walk Alone.

Still cant believe this.

He always seemed a real grounded fella, not like some of the primadonna's in todays game.

A handsome f**ker, kids, money and involved in the greatest game of all.....it still wasn't enough. That's what depression does to ya, it has no respect for status or reputation.

As a lot of people have already said here, hopefully the media will let his family grieve in peace.

RIP Gary, only the good die young.

YNWA

The mind is a delicate, complex, instrument and depression an awful disease: unless you've suffered or know someone who has it's nigh on impossible to describe the turmoil Gary must have felt. Sad all round.

R.I.P. Gary.

Silent killer depression,my father suffers from depression & i lost 2 very close friends to depression who both ended their lives in the same manner as Gary Speed,always admired speedo and still shocked by todays news.

You are at peace now Gary.

I am speechless. I have no idea what to say. I almost feel like crying. I mean, I didn't know the guy, never met him and probably never was in the same city as him but you don't have to have done any of that to realize the man is a legend, one of the nice guys in football. I just can't believe it. I am so torn apart by it. No idea what to say except my thoughts are with the family.

R.I.P YNWA

This just goes to show that money can't buy you everything, the guy had a loving wife and kids and still wasn't happy, depression is a TERRIBLE disease and hard to beat.
R.I.P. Gary Speed

RIP Gary

Football Legend

Listening to the 606 special.  Touching tribute.

Hearing some things about the death of Gary Speed up here and its absolutely sickening if true.

What I've been told is one of the nationals had found out Gary Speed was gay and they planned to reveal all in the papers.

Hearing some things about the death of Gary Speed up here and its absolutely sickening if true.

What I've been told is one of the nationals had found out Gary Speed was gay and they planned to reveal all in the papers.

Haven't heard that, although I've heard a rumour someone from a tabloid was on his case yesterday regarding a story involving him.

Hope the journo who has hounded him gets F***ing grief for it.



Former Newcastle player Hugo Viana after today's Braga game.

Haven't heard that, although I've heard a rumour someone from a tabloid was on his case yesterday regarding a story involving him.

Hope the journo who has hounded gets F***ing grief for it.

My phones being going mad for the last 25 minutes or so with texts regarding this and Steve Bruce mate.

Touching piece from Dan Walker, presenter of Football Focus:

Gary Speed leaves a huge hole in football

I have no idea where to start this blog, what to say in the middle and how to finish it. This will probably be a stream of consciousness.

I spent four hours with Gary Speed on Saturday. He was our guest on Football Focus and was in great form. I've met and interviewed him on many occasions. I always found him to be kind, funny, intelligent and insightful.

On Saturday he was cracking jokes with Gary McAllister, his midfield partner from the title-winning Leeds side of 1991-92.

Off-air we talked about playing golf, how good his boys were at football and his dreams of taking Wales to the World Cup in 2014.

He was always interested in what you were up to. He would say: "How are you finding Sheffield, Dan? Are you and the kids settling in OK?" That was part of his charm - he cared.

One of the production team went to the same school as Gary in North Wales and they were talking about the day the Queen turned up. A picture, taken of Gary with fellow alumni Michael Owen and Her Majesty, is still proudly shown in reception.

Gary was genuinely loved in the game. In the last few hours you will have heard more qualified accounts and memories from fellow managers, players, friends and fans talking of how much he meant to them and what he did for their club. There have been tributes and flowers left across the country and tears shed throughout the football family.

After Focus we recorded a 10-minute piece with Gary talking about Wales qualifying campaign for the next World Cup. He spoke with passion about the fixtures and desire to see success. His hope was that the upturn in form would see his team playing in front of full stadia again. He joked about Team GB and how Scotland would be an easy game, McAllister giggled.

Those words and hopes for the future seem so poignant now. There was certainly no hint of any troubles or any indication of what was going to happen a few hours later.

"I'm just popping upstairs to see Al [Shearer], Dan. I'll see you up there in a mo," he said after the show.

I joined Gary in the Match of the Day production office a few minutes later where he was chatting with Shearer, Mark Lawrenson and McAllister.

They were having a laugh and watching the Stoke v Blackburn game. Alan and Gary were organising when they were going to see each other next before Shearer left to go to watch Manchester United v Newcastle at Old Trafford. They all ribbed Alan for his comedy hat that later featured on MOTD.

I was going home to Sheffield so I said my goodbyes. Gary gave me a warm handshake and said "thanks for today Dan".

"We might even have you on again soon," I joked.

When I got the news on Sunday morning I was stunned. I still can't get my head around it.

This is not the time to go into the reasons behind it all. I know people are talking about depression and other issues but we will have to wait to know the whole - probably very sad - truth.

This is the time to say that all our thoughts and prayers are with his family. This is the time to say I found him to be a top bloke and really enjoyed his company.

He leaves a huge hole in football. He seemed to have everything in front of him - two boys he loved, physical fitness and, at just 42, a promising future as manager of Wales. But Gary Speed is gone and I miss him.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/danwalker/2011/11/gary_speed_leaves_a_huge_whole.html

 Meant to be the sun.  Taking gutter press to a whole new level. F***ing rag wouldn't wipe my arse with it
Hope the rest of football follows our lead boycotting the rag

Meant to be the sun.  Taking gutter press to a whole new level. F***ing rag wouldn't wipe my arse with it
Hope the rest of football follows our lead boycotting the rag

Another life destroyed by that sh*t rag if true, they need shutting down and prosecuting.

Don't want to speculate too much but some of the things in that article by Dan Walker give the impression something sudden happened to make Speed do what he did.

Meant to be the sun.  Taking gutter press to a whole new level. F***ing rag wouldn't wipe my arse with it
Hope the rest of football follows our lead boycotting the rag

Rumours all over the place, just seen on another newspaper report the scum have denied doing any story on Speed, someone else has been suggesting it's the mirror.

Gary Speed in apparent suicide just hours after tv appearance

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/8919251/Gary-Speed-in-apparent-suicide-just-hours-after-tv-appearance.html

By Mark Hughes, Crime Correspondent

7:39PM GMT 27 Nov 2011

At midday on Saturday the Wales manager Gary Speed was live on the BBC’s Football Focus programme discussing his future plans for the side.

He was on “great form” according to those there and left the studio after making tentative plans to appear again on the show before Christmas.

This morning, a little over 18 hours later, the 42-year-old was found hanged at his home in Cheshire having apparently committed suicide.

Last night mystery surrounded his death, with friends and figures in the football world at a loss to explain why Speed, a successful young manager and former Premier League player, would apparently take his own life.

Speed’s death came a day after the former Liverpool footballer Stan Collymore spoke candidly about his battle with depression. Online speculation suggested that Speed had perhaps suffered from the illness. Whether he did was not certain last night.

There was also suggestion that Speed, a former Leeds, Everton, Newcastle United and Bolton Wanderers player, had recently learned that a tabloid newspaper was to print a story about his private life.


The S*n newspaper denied online accusations.

A message on the paper’s official Twitter account read: “No truth in this story. The S*n was not investigating Gary Speed in any way.”

Police were called to Speed’s home in Huntington, Chester, shortly after 7am today. Officers discovered his body and a statement was released indicating that there were “no suspicious circumstances”.

His wife, Louise, and two children, Edward, 14, and Thomas, 13, were believed to be with family at the remote country house.
Police said that the family intend to make a public statement “at a later date”.

Last week Speed travelled to Brussels to attend a fixtures meeting for Wales’s World Cup campaign.

His Saturday had started with a trip to Salford, to the BBC’s new studios, to appear as a guest on Football Focus alongside his former Leeds United team mate Gary McAllister.

Dan Walker, the show’s presenter, said that Speed gave no outwardly sign of any personal turmoil. Instead he spoke about golf and his two sons and even made tentative arrangements to appear on the show next month.

Mr Walker said: “He was on great form, cracking jokes and asking about my family and kids. He was talking passionately about the future. There was absolutely no indication at all.

“He gave me the impression that he was really looking forward to his kids growing up to be really good footballers and Wales qualifying for the World Cup.”

After the show ended, at 1pm, he met up with Match of the Day pundits Alan Shearer, whom Speed had played alongside at Newcastle United, and Mark Lawrenson to watch the early Premier League game between Stoke City and Blackburn Rovers.

Then, just before 3pm, he made the short journey to Old Trafford to watch his former team Newcastle take on Manchester United.

The match finished shortly before 5pm and it is thought Speed travelled back to his home in Chester where, little more than 12 hours later, he was found hanged.

At some point in the day Speed is thought to have spoken to his former Wales team mate Robbie Savage.

Savage, who is currently appearing on Strictly Come Dancing, wrote on Twitter: “He was upbeat on phone yesterday we were laughing together, talking football and dancing he was a great teammate and a great friend

“He come to watch strictly 3/4 weeks ago I high fived him in the front row he loved the show ,he loved life he loved his family ! Devastated”
Other tributes were paid from the world of football.

Michael Owen, the Manchester United striker, lived close to Speed in Cheshire. He wrote: “Just cannot believe the news regarding Gary Speed. We waved at each other a couple of days ago dropping our kids off at school. I'm numb.

“He has died aged 42. So sad. He lived local to me and we knew his family. He leaves behind 2 sons. Tragic.”

The Prime Minister David Cameron also released a tribute via a Downing Street spokesman.

It said: "The Prime Minister was deeply saddened to hear of the death of Gary Speed, who was greatly respected by football fans across the country both as a player and manager.

"The Prime Minister's thoughts are with his family and friends on this very sad day for fans everywhere, especially in Wales."

The Football Association of Wales’s chief executive Jonathan Ford said: “I, and all of the football family of Wales, am devastated by the news of Gary’s passing. My thoughts and prayers are with his wife and family at this difficult time.”

Phil Pritchard, the association’s president, added: “I am completely shocked by this terrible news and my thoughts are with his family. We will do whatever we can as an association to help them in this difficult time.”