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/ Ralph Ellis / 28 November 2011 / Leave a Comment 
Gary Speed was one of football's most loved characters
"He was a fantastic bloke, a person who understood his position in the world of football, but still had time for everybody else."
Gary Speed's untimely death has united the football world in grief. Ralph Ellis pays tribute to the man who, as well as being one of the Premier League's finest ever performers, played no small part in creating the website you read today...
There are times when, however good you think you are with words, there is no way to get across your emotions. I was at Swansea yesterday when news started to spread of the tragic end to Gary Speed's life, and 24 hours later, it's still hard to come to terms with it.
So I make no apologies for swapping the normal Monday morning reflections on the weekend's Premier League results to add my small contribution to the mountain of tributes that have been paid to one of football's genuine legends.
Knowledge
Gary was the first celebrity columnist when Betting.Betfair site was created (see his last column) and it was my absolute privilege to by chosen to work with him to get his thoughts on paper. He knew football from top to bottom, of course. You wouldn't have expected anything else from a man who for a while held the record for the number of Premier League appearances, as well as being his country's most capped outfield player. But his knowledge of, and love for, other sports, was as deep as it was astonishing.
In those days he came up with betting tips on golf, snooker, cricket, horse racing and just about any sport you could think of. His contribution unquestionably helped in pioneering this website, because at the time it was a pretty new and experimental concept for an online betting firm to run its own sports blog.
His insight into situations helped prove that there was a huge desire to read informed opinion and inside knowledge relating to sporting markets, and the excellent Betfair columnists now like Michael Vaughan and Lee Dixon have taken on that original mantle.
Experience
Speed spoke with authority from the experience of a career that had begun with the heartbreak of being forced to leave Everton, the club he had grown up supporting. It continued when he was part of the Leeds side that won the last First Division title before the Premiership was born. And he understood the demands of the Newcastle fans where he had been a legend for both his contribution on the pitch and his willingness to sign autographs and pose for pictures in a part of the country where football was the only thing that mattered. He knew about pressure and expectation and how to handle it. He was steeped in the win-at-all-costs mentality of the top professionals, but had a broader understanding and love for the sport itself too.
Dedication
Apart, possibly, from his great friend Ryan Giggs I can't think of another footballer who best transcended the change in values and culture of the modern game. He began his career in the days of "win or lose, it's on the booze", and ended it embracing sports science, diet, psychology and all the things which kept his body fit enough to play at the peak of the Premier League until little more than a year before his 40th birthday. On plenty of occasions I had to wait to talk to him until he'd finished doing his yoga session at the end of a day's training.
He took that dedication into the start of his management career - and while his early club days at Sheffield United were full of frustration it was as boss of his country that he was beginning to blossom. His greatest success was to convince the committee men at the Welsh FA that they needed to loosen the purse strings to let him provide the very best of infrastructure and sports science to his players, and that was beginning to reap rewards.
A side who had slid out of the world's top 100 and were heading towards 150, whose top players under previous manager John Toshack often developed mystery injuries on the eve of squad get togethers, suddenly looked united and full of purpose. Their 4-1 win over Norway in early November was a thrilling glimpse of the potential that could be unlocked if Gareth Bale, Aaron Ramsey and Craig Bellamy were all fired with enthusiasm to bring their best to the international stage.
Generosity
More than that he was a fantastic bloke, a person who understood his position in the world of football, but still had time for everybody else. When I ran the London Marathon a couple of years ago he made a huge donation to my sponsorship fund, just because he could.
We may never know quite why it has all been brought to such a premature end. To be honest I'm not sure I want to. But on my behalf, and on behalf of everybody who reads Betting.Betfair, this is sending thoughts and sympathy to his wife and two sons. He will be missed by us all.
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