Post by bluetornados on Nov 26, 2021 15:41:36 GMT
For Neil Taylor and his Swansea City team-mates, Sunday, 27 November 2011 felt like a typical Premier League match day.
On a crisp, clear afternoon, there was a hum of anticipation as supporters filled the Liberty Stadium for the visit of Aston Villa in the day’s early televised game at 13:30.
With kick-off a little over an hour away, Taylor was focused. His pre-match preparations and rituals done, the Wales international was ready.
Swansea captain Ashley Williams gathered his players for a huddle in the changing room before stepping out on to the pitch to warm up, the sounds of a capacity crowd filtering through the tunnel.
Then, as he did before every game, manager Brendan Rodgers approached his team. Only this time, it was not to discuss tactics.
"Brendan just came and pulled us out of the changing room to a back room," Taylor recalls.
"He said: 'Listen, we think Gary Speed has passed away.'
"It's hard to explain moments of shock but I think we just sort of didn't believe it or thought it was going to be one of those silly rumours or whatever. Your first question is: 'How do you mean?'
"And then we heard it was possibly suicide. Then someone said it had been confirmed by Shay Given, who was in the opposite changing room for Aston Villa. He was a good friend of his from his time in Newcastle. He'd confirmed it."
Taylor could not process what he had just heard. He felt numb.
Speed, the much-loved Wales manager, a midfield great of the Premier League era, had taken his own life. His body was found by his wife Louise at their home.
"And then there were the scenes of Shay when he was crying before the game."
In one of the most striking images of the afternoon, Given wiped tears away as he took his position in the Villa goal moments before kick-off.
"It was very hard news to process, very saddening, very confusing for both sets of teams," says Joe Allen, who was playing in midfield for Swansea.
"There were lads who knew Gary very well on their team as well as ours. It was a very sombre mood and the game went on to be a drab 0-0.
"Anyone involved that day was struggling to digest the terrible news."
Rodgers described his players as "shellshocked", while his Villa counterpart Alex McLeish said his "blood ran cold" when Given told him the news.
Speed was loved everywhere he went, for his charisma and warmth as much as his stellar playing career, during which he made 840 appearances for Leeds United, Everton, Newcastle United, Bolton Wanderers and Sheffield United.
Such was the widespread outpouring of grief, makeshift memorials appeared across the UK outside the stadiums of his former clubs.
Flowers lay at the feet of the statue of Billy Bremner outside Elland Road, where Bryn Law was reporting for Sky Sports News the following morning.
He and Speed, the same age and both from north Wales, had become friends when Law worked for BBC Radio Leeds in the early 1990s.
"They [Sky] kept asking and I really didn't want to do it but they kept asking so, in the end, I said 'OK',” Law says.
"My mindset was it should be me because I won't cover this as a death of a footballer, what a tragedy for the game, I'll cover this as the death of a really good guy, an absolute tragedy for the family.
When you ask anybody who knew Speed to describe him, there is a recurring theme.
As well as the universal praise for his playing career, the influence he had on Welsh football as a coach and how his death may have altered perceptions of mental health, the common thread running through every conversation is the sheer love for Speed.
"It just goes to show the impact he made as a footballer, as a manager and as a man," says John Hartson.
On a crisp, clear afternoon, there was a hum of anticipation as supporters filled the Liberty Stadium for the visit of Aston Villa in the day’s early televised game at 13:30.
With kick-off a little over an hour away, Taylor was focused. His pre-match preparations and rituals done, the Wales international was ready.
Swansea captain Ashley Williams gathered his players for a huddle in the changing room before stepping out on to the pitch to warm up, the sounds of a capacity crowd filtering through the tunnel.
Then, as he did before every game, manager Brendan Rodgers approached his team. Only this time, it was not to discuss tactics.
"Brendan just came and pulled us out of the changing room to a back room," Taylor recalls.
"He said: 'Listen, we think Gary Speed has passed away.'
"It's hard to explain moments of shock but I think we just sort of didn't believe it or thought it was going to be one of those silly rumours or whatever. Your first question is: 'How do you mean?'
"And then we heard it was possibly suicide. Then someone said it had been confirmed by Shay Given, who was in the opposite changing room for Aston Villa. He was a good friend of his from his time in Newcastle. He'd confirmed it."
Taylor could not process what he had just heard. He felt numb.
Speed, the much-loved Wales manager, a midfield great of the Premier League era, had taken his own life. His body was found by his wife Louise at their home.
"And then there were the scenes of Shay when he was crying before the game."
In one of the most striking images of the afternoon, Given wiped tears away as he took his position in the Villa goal moments before kick-off.
"It was very hard news to process, very saddening, very confusing for both sets of teams," says Joe Allen, who was playing in midfield for Swansea.
"There were lads who knew Gary very well on their team as well as ours. It was a very sombre mood and the game went on to be a drab 0-0.
"Anyone involved that day was struggling to digest the terrible news."
Rodgers described his players as "shellshocked", while his Villa counterpart Alex McLeish said his "blood ran cold" when Given told him the news.
Speed was loved everywhere he went, for his charisma and warmth as much as his stellar playing career, during which he made 840 appearances for Leeds United, Everton, Newcastle United, Bolton Wanderers and Sheffield United.
Such was the widespread outpouring of grief, makeshift memorials appeared across the UK outside the stadiums of his former clubs.
Flowers lay at the feet of the statue of Billy Bremner outside Elland Road, where Bryn Law was reporting for Sky Sports News the following morning.
He and Speed, the same age and both from north Wales, had become friends when Law worked for BBC Radio Leeds in the early 1990s.
"They [Sky] kept asking and I really didn't want to do it but they kept asking so, in the end, I said 'OK',” Law says.
"My mindset was it should be me because I won't cover this as a death of a footballer, what a tragedy for the game, I'll cover this as the death of a really good guy, an absolute tragedy for the family.
When you ask anybody who knew Speed to describe him, there is a recurring theme.
As well as the universal praise for his playing career, the influence he had on Welsh football as a coach and how his death may have altered perceptions of mental health, the common thread running through every conversation is the sheer love for Speed.
"It just goes to show the impact he made as a footballer, as a manager and as a man," says John Hartson.