Content Warning: This post contains some potentially upsetting material.
Do you remember where you were when Gary Speed equalised against Dynamo Kiev in the 2002 Champions League? Oddly, I do. I was in a cottage in an autumnal Norfolk Broads, enjoying an evening of European competition on ITV. I don’t actually remember the manner in which he scored (I’m fairly sure it was a torpedo-like diving header) but I do recall Alan Shearer arrowing in a penalty some ten minutes later to complete the comeback. For Speed it was a special moment in a long and distinguished career full of special moments.
Make no mistake; Gary Speed was one of the finest footballers to have ever played in the Premier League. Some statistics for you…The Welshman maintained a career largely spent in the top-flight for twenty two years, playing for five different clubs, as well as his country. He retired from playing in his forty-first year and was the first player to hit five hundred Premier League appearances (he still sits at fifth in the all-time list.) He won the Football League championship with Leeds in 1992 and appeared in two FA Cup Finals with Newcastle. He was made an MBE in 2010 and, in that same year, ran the London Marathon for the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation. His goal-scoring record of one in every six games (ish) does not tell the whole story. Seek out a YouTube compilation and marvel at the versatility of the man in the attacking third; bullet headers (for which he was perhaps best know), impeccably-timed late dashes into the box and the occasional wonder-strike. He was tough-tackling, tireless and generally ended up as captain wherever he played.
Gary Speed is now remembered as much for the manner of his passing as for his remarkable career as a player. This, in many ways, is unsurprising. The shock-waves of sorrow and grief sent through the footballing world at the news on that tragic morning in 2011 are hard to forget. The tributes to the man, at the time and since, reveal a humble, hard-working and generous character. Mickey Thomas recounts that, when he was struggling financially, ‘Speedo’ gave him thirty pairs of his boots in case he wanted to sell them to raise some cash. Various younger colleagues have spoken of his nurturing spirit as a professional mentor.
Louise, Gary’s widow, has begun to serialise her family’s ‘untold story’ in The Mirror and so memories of his life and passing have returned to the back pages this week. Friends and family alike have been sharing memories of confusion and pain, as well as of happier times. Speed’s legacy has, once again, bubbled to the surface and details which have hitherto been intimate will soon become public knowledge.
We are certainly due a reflection upon the life and work of the beloved Welshman for many reasons. His career is always worth celebrating, both for its successes and longevity. Speed was apparently an early devotee to contemporary ideas about fitness and diet and the fact that he played until he was almost forty-one is surely a tribute to that. The way he conducted himself on and off the pitch continues to be an example to anyone who plays the game. His enduring popularity amongst his peers is warming and surely a tribute to a terrific bloke.
It would be deeply sad if the legacy of Speed’s life was overshadowed by the circumstances of his death and yet it is clear that his passing will- and perhaps should- never be forgotten. In a week in which Troy Deeney, Anthony Knockaert, George Green and Bruce Grobelaar have all spoken openly about the times in their lives when they’ve felt fragile, we have all been reminded that things are changing. Slowly.
In football, as in the wider world, old stigmas are peeling away and rhetorics and dialogues are softening. That is a wonderful and empowering thing and will hopefully become a self-fulfilling prophesy; the more players speak out, the more players will feel able to speak out. Considering their feted status as role-models to so many, let’s hope that this will filter through to society in general and inspire others to follow suit.
While Gary Speed’s passing should never be forgotten, it is his life and career that we humans and fans must strive to remember and to celebrate. He was clearly as brilliant a man as he was a footballer, as dedicated to those he loved as to the fans who love him still. I dearly hope that those details which his family choose to reveal to the world will be respected and, if possible, used in a positive way which might encourage anyone-footballer or otherwise- suffering in private to open themselves up to the kindness and generosity which is inherent in the human condition.
The Armchair Journeyman 