Wales football manager Gary Speed is dead

[Guest]

He was found hanged this morning apparently

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-15909277

A very sad story, he was proving to be a success professionally as manager of the Welsh team with some great results to his credit.

My sympathies go to his family and friends who must be shocked and devastated, and to all followers of sport in Wales.

[johncorrigan]

He was found hanged this morning apparently

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-15909277

A very sad story, he was proving to be a success professionally as manager of the Welsh team with some great results to his credit.

My sympathies go to his family and friends who must be shocked and devastated, and to all followers of sport in Wales.

I was really sad to hear this - 85 caps for his country. He had really turned the Welsh team around. He was a great player for a long time - always seemed really down to earth, and clearly very popular with his fellow players.

[scottycelt]

Like every football fan I am absolutely shocked at this news.

What a truly dreadful time for his parents and poor wife and children.

Gary Speed, RIP.

[Lateralthinking1]

Sad - and surprising - news.

[Nick Armstrong]

Terrible news. Particularly shaken, as I was watching him as one of the two studio guests live in the studio on Football Focus yesterday lunchtime. Particularly sad and mystifying. The shock to his family and friends can simply not be imagined...

[Anna]

Mystifying indeed. In such a short time he turned Wales football team around, seemed to have everything going for him. Such a shock, seems unbelievable, so young

[teamsaint]

what a fine role model he was as a player and manager, for any aspiring youngster.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Tragic, and so hard to comprehend.

[gurnemanz]

I heard it on the news after Private Passions and couldn't believe it. I switched over to the Swansea-Villa match on Sky which I hadn't planned to watch. Almost unbearable to see his friend, Shay Given, wiping away the tears.

[Stunsworth]

He was on the BBC's football focus on Saturday afternoon. No hint that there was anything worrying him.

[Mary Chambers]

I've never heard of him, but it seems a very sad story.

[EdgeleyRob]

An absolute tragedy.He seemed a genuine nice guy and was a cracking player.He had started to lead the Welsh football team out of the doldrums too. RIP.

[BBMmk2]

I was shocked by this news.What a great loss this is to Welsh football and to the country to RIP Gary Speed

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

yes a very disturbing event .... not at all the kind of person you could imagine ending their life in such a way

[Petrushka]

Having no interest in football (it wasn't always thus) I had not heard of Gary Speed but have spent a while following up and it does seem very strange. As far as I can tell no-one appears to have a bad word to say about him and in the world of sport that's pretty rare and in football, rarer still. On the face of it, he seemed to be doing a great job, had a good family life and great prospects. Was there no sordid press story about to break?

In puzzling cases like this and in criminal instances such as Derek Bird and Rauol Moat, we never seem to get to the bottom of what prompts these people to act in the way they do. Their motives remain a mystery. We still have a long way to go before we can understand the workings of the human mind.

Perhaps, in the case of Gary Speed, the truth will come out.