The footballing world was stunned yesterday with the shocking announcement that Gary Speed had died, aged just 42-years-old…
He may well have never had a past connection with Portsmouth Football Club and now, even if it would have seemed unlikely, he never could in the future due to his tragic and shocking death.
It just seems unreal that this has happened and it has left me in a daze with a large portion of Sunday spent in an almost trancelike state really as I was unable to comprehend what had happened and left in disbelieve that it had.
Given the world that we now live in these days little can really surprise you, but this genuinely did me and I dare so plenty of others.
To think that less than 24-hours prior to this announcement as I prepared to leave for the Pompey game with Leicester I was watching him on football focus thinking ‘Wales are destined for a very good future at international level.’
All looked so well, he seemed so happy and plans for that bright Welsh future were being looked at – so, as much as you can ‘never really tell’ that this type of thing was going to happen there seemed to be no signs whatsoever of what was to follow…
For people of my generation, the 30-somethings, this hits particularly hard as he was one of the real stars of our generation as most of us grew up. He, well for me and many people I know, was usually one of the first names you thought of as ‘wishing he played for you’ back in the day.
My sister, slightly older than me but still just about a 30-something, idolised him – she had posters of him on her wall and had a massive crush on him. Mum tells me that she was devastated by the news, which does not surprise me in the least.
For him to have been lost at such a young age, and such a way, is just stunning. One of footballs genuine ‘good guys’ has been lost to the sport and the world, it is such a shame.
You cannot help but wonder why this has happened and what brought this on or try to understand just what a dark place he was on for things to have turned out the way they did but the fact of the matter is, for whatever reason, this is how things have turned out, this has happened so thoughts are with his friends and family.
I can only try to imagine what his family are going through but I have little doubt that all of us would spare a few moments for the wife and children that have been left behind.
RIP Gary Speed, hopefully he has now found that peace he felt he needed…
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