Wales manager Gary Speed found dead at home

Welsh national manager, Gary Speed, 42, was found dead in his Cheshire home at 7.08am BST this morning. Police suspect it was a case of suicide, as there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding his death.

The official police statement read: “At 7.08am today, Cheshire Police was informed of a sudden death at an address in Huntington, Chester. Officers went to the scene where a 42-year-old man was found dead. The next of kin have been informed and have confirmed the identity of the man as Gary Speed. There are no suspicious circumstances surrounding the death. The family have requested that they are left in peace to grieve at this difficult time. A family tribute will be released at a later date but not today.”

The Football Association of Wales (FAW) earlier broke the news in a official statement released shortly after his death.

“The Football Association of Wales are sad to announce the death of the national team manager Gary Speed, we extend our sympathies and condolences to the family.”

Born in Wales, Speed started his professional career with Leeds United, where he made his debut at the age of 19. The midfielder played a key role in Leeds winning the First Division Championship in 1992. He made a formidable partnership along with Gordon Strachan, David Batty and especially with Gary McAllister.

In 1996, he moved to Everton, a club he supported as a boy. He captained Everton before moving to Newcastle United under controversial circumstances in 1998.

The most glittering moment of Speed’s career was in a Newcastle shirt, twice he was the runners up in the FA Cup, and also played in the Champion’s League in 2002-03.

Speed went on to play for Bolton Wanderers and Sheffield United before retiring in 2010.

He was the first player to complete 500 appearances in the Premier League, a record that was later broken by David James.

He was the player who had scored in every season of the Premier League till 2007, a record that was broken by Ryan Giggs, who has scored so far in every season, except this one, yet.

Speed is also the most capped outfield player in the history of Wales Football team. He was appointed the manager of the national team, which was recently enjoying a good run, having won 4 of their last 5 matches, and having risen to 50th in the World Rankings. He was building something special there with players like Ramsey and Bale.

Condolences from all over the world poured in, and the footballing world is truly devastated by the news of his untimely death. It’s in moments like these, everything else falls into perspective.

The Football Associations of England and Wales paid their own tributes to Speed, whose death was announced shortly before Swansea’s Barclays Premier League clash with Aston Villa at the Liberty Stadium in Wales this afternoon. With a number of players from both sides closely connected to Speed, there was speculation that the match might be called off – but it went ahead as planned.

A minute’s silence was observed as the two sides lined up on the field, which quickly gave way to a spontaneous round of applause and chants of “there’s only one Gary Speed” inside the Liberty Stadium. Four members of the national squad were set to feature in the starting line-ups, with Ashley Williams, Neil Taylor and Joe Allen named in Brendan Rodgers’ Swansea side, while James Collins started for the visitors.

Villa manager Alex McLeish said that he would have had no complaints if the match had been called off, with members of his squad among the hardest hit by the news.

“There’s three of them – James Collins is a Wales international, Shay Given is very close to Gary, and Jermaine Jenas played with Gary for a while at Newcastle, so these boys are very upset about this,” McLeish told Sky Sports.

Shay Given was very close to Speed in the 6 years they played together at Newcastle. He was seen crying after the minute’s silence, but still performed his goalkeeping duties.

R. I. P. Gary Speed, you will remain in our hearts forever, as a footballer, and as one of the best player/coach to grace this game.