People talk about footballers as if they exist on a higher plane, when they are really just mere mortals like the rest of us. We watch them and idolise them and we wish we had their talent, or their fame, or their money. But we don’t stop to think how life must be for them.

Gary Speed never thought of himself as anything but ordinary. For all the talent he undoubtedly had - the strength, the pace, the vision, the stamina, the heart, the agility – his biggest asset was his humility; his inherent belief that he was nothing special and he would have to work hard to get better at everything. It was a character trait that didn’t just help him get better at football, it helped him in everyday life. It meant people relied on him, and looked up to him, but it meant they never thought to ask after him.  

As a footballer, you would describe Gary Speed as the ultimate professional, or a manager’s dream. This would be down to his dedication, his reliability, his versatility and his willingness to perform for the team and not for himself. Gary Speed was always there, he never missed a game, he never hid in a game, he was always in the thick of it, he was always on the scoresheet, he was always in the limelight. But he never wanted to be.

Speed's dedication was legendary

For all the film star looks and the lavish trappings of the media-saturated lifestyle he fell into, it never changed Gary Speed. His humility tempered his natural charisma. He was still the same person who knew he had to train hard every day, had to listen to every manager and had to look after his body. On the outside it may have looked like everything came easily; there was always a smile, always a playful glint in the eye, always an effortless cool to what he did. And yet underneath, clearly nothing came easily.

Gary Speed signed associate schoolboy forms for Leeds United as a 14-year-old. Revie old boys Eddie Gray and Billy Bremner both saw something in him, but it was Howard Wilkinson, the crucial break from the past, who made Speed an integral part of a fabulous era of marauding success. At 18, Speed was given his debut in a late season dead rubber versus Oldham, a year later he had already played a critical part in releasing Leeds United from their Second Division purgatory.

Speed made his Leeds debut as an 18-year-old

Adding youthful vigour to a flagging side showing signs of fatigue, Speed’s natural effervescence provided three goals and some vital impetus as Leeds spluttered to promotion. And there was no looking back for Gary Speed.

Leeds rattled along the tracks into the First Division like a runaway train. With his partner in crime, David Batty, Speed epitomised the carefree spirit that could only bring more success. Always grinning and always enjoying the game, Speed and Batty took to their higher status like ducks to water. This was football on autopilot. You just had to turn up, turn it on and watch it go. Football was effortless, untroubled and natural, it was how you always dreamt football should be. It was a privilege to witness and it was a youthful obsession with mortal beings who were not much older than me, but were inhabiting a higher plane. Nothing normal could illicit this joy, this rapture. Gary Speed, David Batty, this team, to this youngster, were not normal.

Speed shares a joke with Tony Dorigo

Speed was the most attack-minded of the Fab Four midfield, starting as a left-winger and quickly becoming known for a cavalier dash into the penalty area, always on the lookout for the ball, or some space, and normally finding both. He was named as Howard Wilkinson’s most valuable player during the 1991/92 title-winning season, no mean feat in a team liberally sprinkled with ten out of ten performers that season, and his versatility saw him turn out at left back and as a striker while Leeds upset football’s natural order to swipe the title from under everyone’s noses.

Speed reached double figures in goals from midfield in four consecutive seasons from 1990/91 to 1993/94, in the meantime adapting his abilities to become the central midfield partner to Gary McAllister, and adding maturity and responsibility to his game. But fortunes had dimmed at Elland Road and change was in the air.

It would be wrong to sugar-coat Gary Speed’s legacy and pretend it ended well for him at Leeds. The team and the club had lost its sparkle, and so had Speed himself. It was time for him to move on and there was little fuss, or rancour, or tears when he did. The regret now is that Speed’s form was a consequence of the club losing its way, and it was a mere blip in an otherwise stellar career. Leeds fans were robbed of Speed’s peak years, but the memories are still fond ones, and the images portray the happiest times watching an all-action hero performing to the very best of his much-honed abilities.

Speed with his title-winning teammates

His first goal against Bradford City was a typical, perfectly-timed run into the box and a neat finish. His length-of-the-field effort in the 4-0 demolition of Sheffield United was him rubber-stamping his arrival on the scene. His long range effort at Southampton in the title-winning season was elegant yet deadly. And his exquisite volley to kick-start the 4-1 romp over Stuttgart at Elland Road was style and class personified. Add to those a catalogue of gravity-defying headers of herculean strength.

Nothing Gary Speed did was untidy. It all came out of a textbook you could pass to a budding youngster and say “copy this and you will be alright”. And that is what people do. Yes, Gary Speed was the ultimate professional. He was the hero we all looked up to, the footballer and the person we all wanted to be. He was always there.

And yet his life will forever be remembered for the extremities. At one end the achievement, the reverence and the ‘Roy of the Rovers’ adulation. And at the other end the darkness, the loneliness and the macabre. In the middle is the biggest chasm. And we’re all lost in it looking for answers we will never find. Because we think these people exist on a higher plane, when really they are just like us, with the same vulnerabilities, the same insecurities and the same questions.

The Burley Banksy's tribute to Speed

It’s just what they do with their abilities that sets them apart. And Gary Speed did everything with his. It would be wrong to suggest we shouldn’t hero worship footballers and put them on a pedestal, because life is all about dreams and you couldn’t have a better person to look up to than Gary Speed.

But we shouldn’t believe everyone is invincible, even when it looks like they are, we always need to ask questions and seek reassurances and talk to them. Because Gary Speed was always there, and we thought he always would be. And now all we can do is wonder why he isn’t.

Time Line

Leeds United Centurions

  1. Eddie Gray


  2. Peter Lorimer


  3. Jack Charlton

    The survivor who came, saw and left on his own terms 

  4. Billy Bremner

    The everlasting legacy of Leeds United legend Billy Bremner 

  5. Terry Cooper


  6. Norman Hunter

    Leeds United Centurions: Norman Hunter – fiercely competitive and fiercely protected 

  7. Johnny Giles

    Don Revie's on-field tactician who ticked every box

  8. Albert Johannseon

    The eternal battle of triumph and tragedy 

  9. Mick Jones

    The unsung workhorse of Revie’s great side 

  10. Bobby Collins

    The hero’s hero

  11. Allan Clarke

    The magnetising frontman of Don Revie’s Leeds

  12. John Charles


  13. Mark Viduka

    Casual swagger, devastating prowess and big match brilliance

  14. Chris Fairclough

    A gamble that paid off for everyone

  15. Tony Currie

    The right place, but at the wrong time

  16. Olivier Dacourt

    Taking the Whites to another level

  17. Mel Sterland

    The archetypal attacking full back

  18. Rod Wallace

    Bringing a whole new dimension to Wilko’s Leeds

  19. Arthur Graham

    A much-cherished player in an era of little cheer

  20. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink

    The serious business of scoring every type of goal

  21. Lee Chapman

    Graceless but ruthless and the ultimate January signing 

  22. Jonathan Woodgate

    The start and end of a dream 

  23. Tony Yeboah

    The brutal front man who left a fire burning at Elland Road 

  24. Alan Smith

    The fans' tainted love for Mr Leeds United 

  25. Tony Dorigo

    The left back who brought art to an uncultured game 

  26. Ian Baird

    An old-fashioned frontman who revelled in notoriety 

  27. Lucas Radebe

    More than just a footballer 

  28. Gary Kelly

    The players’ player who transcended generations 

  29. John Sheridan

    A beacon of hope for the beaten generation  

  30. Nigel Martyn

    Breathless displays of bloody-minded persistence at Leeds United 

  31. Gary Speed


  32. Gordon Strachan

    Gordon Strachan - the inspirational professional who could have just coasted it 

  33. Lee Bowyer

    Lee Bowyer at Leeds United – the perpetual dynamo who gave everything 

  34. Gary McAllister

    Gary McAllister – the improviser who set new standards 

  35. David Batty

    David Batty was the last hero of the rebellious  
