Sam Hall

Gary Speed 1969-2011

This weekend Football has had a wake-up call. It is never nice to hear of a footballer, nay a person, die young, however it feels so much more futile when the young person has taken their own life. Whilst I am not oft upset by the death of a celebrity, this has affected me in a way I’ve never experienced. I had tears in my eyes just while I thought of how this poor man’s life had ended, I tried to put myself in the shoes of Speed and I couldn’t begin to comprehend the darkness that engulfed him.

Gary Speed was an exceptional footballer, a player who I personally idolized; surprisingly mostly in the twilight of his career. He suffered as Sheffield United’s manager but had begun to show he had superb talents locked away, turning an under-performing Wales side in to an impressive and well constructed outfit. Whilst many people have commented on his career and how he was a model professional, it must also be noted (and has been) that he is above and beyond that, he was a truly nice man.

I watched his last interview on BBC’s Football Focus and enjoyed listening to a home nation manager whom I believed to be the most promising. He oozed care and enthusiasm, no one could deny that his aims were infectious. I truly bought in to his philosophy for the Welsh national team, despite being English. He always seemed a warm man, a man with a heart that had not been replaced by a football. That is why he will be missed.

This story will inevitably draw comparisons to that of Robert Enke’s suicide in 2009. The German goalkeeper taking his life following the death of his daughter and the stresses his position came with. He very clearly suffered from extreme depression, now no doubt we will discover this to be the case with Speed. However, Gary’s death was extremely out of the blue for all those who weren’t close to him. Nothing seemed to ever be wrong with this man who has now been tragically robbed of a future, his family being robbed of a great Father, Son and Husband.

Rest in peace…