Wales boss Gary Speed found dead

[Pothas]

Just listening to radio now and you can hear how hard this has hit everyone in football, you always get tributes, and especially in such horrible circumstances but the ones I am hearing seem so genuine and heartfelt.

Awful for the players, managers and commentators involved today, Shay Given in tears during the minutes silence and Bellamy not in the squad for very understandable reasons.

 

[Eds]

Just listening to radio now and you can hear how hard this has hit everyone in football, you always get tributes, and especially in such horrible circumstances but the ones I am hearing seem so genuine and heartfelt.

Awful for the players, managers and commentators involved today, Shay Given in tears during the minutes silence and Bellamy not in the squad for very understandable reasons.

Yeah, seems to have been a genuinely nice guy that reached out to so many. Robbie Savage in tears on BBC News.

 

[Jarquis]

Still hasn't really registered with me.. Seemingly my brain just isn't accepting that this has actually happened. So, so, so out of the blue.
Just saw the Savage interview

 

[Cevno]

Completely shocking and extremely sad news.

Still can't believe it. R.I.P.

 

[NasserFan207]

****ing nightmarish

RIP. Best wishes to his poor wife and kids, they must be going through hell

 

[Furball]

Gary McAllister's interview on SSN wasn't nice viewing. Almost started rambling.

edit: Bryn Law breaking down live on SSN is easily one of the most uncomfortable pieces of TV I've ever seen. Was horrible to watch.

 

[fredfertang]

Suicides are always very sad, but generally explicable on some level

Saw the footage of his appearance on the Beeb on Saturday today - what on earth happened?

The inquest may provide an answer I suppose

 

[Furball]

Suicides are always very sad, but generally explicable on some level

Saw the footage of his appearance on the Beeb on Saturday today - what on earth happened?

The inquest may provide an answer I suppose

The human mind is a funny thing. It's ghastly to think, but his happy persona on Football Focus might just be because he knew what he'd be doing later on and was at peace with himself.

 

[Furball]

I also feel quite a bit for Robbie Savage, as Strictly Come Dancing is filmed on the Saturday for broadcast on the Sunday. So after breaking down on the BBC on Sunday when he was talking about Speed, the public are going to see him on a programme that looks like it's being broadcast live and Savage will be all smiley and normal, and will probably come across as a bit of a **** through no fault of his own.

 

[Uppercut]

It's remarkable how universally liked he was given how polarising football can be- I'm not sure I can think of any footballer with fewer enemies than Speed had.

 

[Furball]

It's remarkable how universally liked he was given how polarising football can be- I'm not sure I can think of any footballer with fewer enemies than Speed had.

Coming out and proclaiming that someone who's just died was a total **** generally isn't the done thing though

 

[BoyBrumby]

Coming out and proclaiming that someone who's just died was a total **** generally isn't the done thing though

No, true. However in this case it's really the case; Speed was a genuinely good guy and a model professional. I think his death has hit everyone in football so hard because it was a bolt from the blue.

I was thinking about the contrast with that other recent (supposed) sporting suicide victim a couple of minutes ago. Whilst Roebuck's death was no less a tragedy, it wasn't quite the shock Speed's was. The former the distant academically minded confirmed bachelor under arrest for a distasteful crime, the latter the warm, grounded friendly family man who'd appeared perfectly at ease only hours earlier on national TV.

The "Why?" in Speed's case seems so very much harder to answer.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Rumour doing the e-rounds that Gary was going to be outed as gay by The Sun.

Dunno what to say, tbh. If there's a grain of truth the mind boggles,

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

The mind boggles why? Because he *might* have been gay?

Do people honestly still care about that?

 

[Pothas]

Yeah heard this as well but really don't want to speculate.

Football got a bloody awful track record on the issue though thats for sure.

 

[BoyBrumby]

The mind boggles why? Because he *might* have been gay?

Do people honestly still care about that?

Because a) it's still considered newsworthy and b) that even a tabloid would still do such things in 2011.

I really don't think the general population give a ****, but if a family man was about to be outed I could see how it might be a contributing factor in what came next.

 

[Tom Halsey]

Because a) it's still considered newsworthy and b) that even a tabloid would still do such things in 2011.

I really don't think the general population give a ****, but if a family man was about to be outed I could see how it might be a contributing factor in what came next.

Is this really surprising?