Mark Lawrenson blog: It's the man Gary Speed was that makes this so hard to accept

By Mirror Football in Mirror Football Blog

Published 22:31 28/11/11

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Gary Speed was in typical mood - laughing, joking, full of enthusiasm about life, his career and family.

That was on Saturday afternoon at the BBC studios. Myself and Alan Shearer sat watching the lunchtime kick-off, preparing for Match of the Day.

Gary and Gary McAllister, team-mates in their Leeds United days, were having fun and messing around next to us as they got ready for Football Focus.

Speedo was talking about his dinner plans, too - how a place down the road had got a new chef in and he was looking forward to it.

I introduced him to my little boy, Sam, who was with me. He's a similar age to Gary's sons and he made a lovely fuss of him. He spoke about his love for his family, his children.

On work issues, Gary was looking forward to fixing up a friendly for his Wales team at the end of the season. He was full of it because they had lined up Mexico and were hoping to play them in New York.

So you can imagine that the phone call on Sunday telling me he'd died was one of the biggest shocks of my life...

I went completely numb, unable to take it in.

Just a few hours earlier, I had been laughing and joking with him.

Forget football.

This is all about something on a human level for anyone who has a family or children.

The devastation must be horrendous. Just unbearable.

It's hard enough to think about it, let alone live through it.

Football always seems to be such a happy industry, full of wealth and glamour. But you just don't know what goes on in people's lives.

Gary was the most normal person you could ever wish to meet. You could never have imagined what has happened.

Saturday was just typical of him.

I remember seeing him last summer. He was with Shearer, having played in Sir Bobby Robson's golf day. I'd played in Steven Gerrard's inaugural charity golf day.

We ran into each other and were laughing about Shearer.

Not many people know this but Shearer is a decent singer. Well, a pub singer. He loves karaoke.

We just had a beer, took the mickey out of Shearer's singing and had a laugh.

Now that all seems such a distant memory.

Now all I can think about are Gary's wife and kids.

I was on the platform waiting for a train earlier and people came up saying, 'What's he like? What's he like?'

People can't believe it's happened.

You could search all day and still not find anyone with a bad word to say about him.

He was a terrific footballer.

Whole-hearted, passionate and extremely talented. He was great in the air and was almost always made captain because he was a role model and a conduit between players and manager.

He was good in the media because he was articulate, spoke well and was intelligent. He was a good communicator and he used those skills beyond the media.

He was friendly and polite to everyone.

Then he went on to manage Wales.

From slow beginnings, Gary was turning it round and making them into a decent football side again.

That was typical of him. He was determined, strong and always destined to make a success of things.

That is why anyone who knew him has found this so hard to accept.

They've also found it hard to accept because they don't want it to be true.

Football has lost a legend, one of the game's good guys and a true friend to many.

Alex Ferguson pays tribute to "true and honest professional" Gary Speed  

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