Gary Speed, 1969-2011
My overriding memory of Gary Speed will be of the night of the England match. Having played them off the park at Wembley, and being incredibly unlucky not to have come away with at least a draw, he allowed the players and staff a post-match drink.
In the hotel’s cosy bar, a converted barn, with his iPod plugged into a set of speakers he went around the room asking each member of staff to pick their favourite song. He seemed to have everyone’s on his Nano, and enjoyed singing along. I never thought he’d have any Mansun when he asked for mine, but amazingly, he was a fan of Chester’s finest.
The sight of him sitting in an oversized armchair, sharing the staff’s musical tastes with a smile on his face will stay with me for a long time. I never saw him without a smile. There was always a joke to be had when speaking with him. It’s such a terrible, terrible loss to his football family, and of course, his wife and two children.
None of us will know what went through his mind in the final hours, and we all wish we could have been able to say something, do something, so that he would still be here with us today. But it must be the happy times that we shared with Gary that we focus on.
I’m sure everyone connected with Wales will want to do everything possible to take “Gary’s team” to Brazil in 2014.
RIP Gary.
Gary Speed as I saw him through my lens
