Newcastle have postponed their planned tribute to their former midfield star Gary Speed at the request of his wife Louise.
Gary Speed with his wife Louise in a recent photograph
It tunes out that Spepd’s wife Louise has been very touched by the plans made by his former clubs to honor her husband, and she wants to attend the ceremony.
Mrs Speed will be at Elland Road tomorrow, and Newcastle will now have their tribute at their next home game, interestingly against Welsh club Swansea on Saturday, December 17.
BNewcastle’s Managing Director Derek Llambias said on Friday:
“We have today received a request from Louise Speed to postpone the club’s planned tribute to her husband Gary in order that she can join us at the stadium when our tribute takes place.”
“Louise has been very touched by the plans and expressed a desire to be present.” “As Louise will be at Elland Road tomorrow, on her request, we have rescheduled our tribute.”
“And it will now take place at our next home game against Swansea on December 17th.” “A minute’s applause for Gary will still take place before kick-off tomorrow.”
Newcastle had planned to have Welsh tenor Gwyn Hughes lead a capacity crowd of 52,000 in the hymn “Bread of Heaven” followed bu one minute of applause for the Welsh superstar.
And supporters in the East Stand were to be provided with black and white cards which which have Gary’s number at Newcastle , number 11 on them.
Presumably that will not all take place before the Swansea game, which is two weeks tomorrow.
Tomorrow will be a round of applause in the memory of Gary Speed before the game.
For the record Gary Speed was signed by Newcastle United on 6th February 1998 from Everton by Kenny Dalglish for a fee of £5.5M, and he left to join Bolton for a £750K fee in July of 2004, having played 284 times with 40 goals for the Magpies.
It’s good that Louise will attend the ceremony in two weeks time, and of course she will receive a magnificent and heart-felt welcome from the Newcastle fans, who also loved her husband.
No doubt close friends of Gary’s like Alan Shearer and John Carver will also be at the ceremony, which will be even more emotional now that Louise will be present.
There has been a lot of outpouring of emotion from those in the football world since Gary Speed’s death over the weekend, when his wife found him hanging in the garage at 7:04 am on Sunday morning.
Our hearts go out to Louise, her two sons and to Gary’s family.
20 comments so far
roshan MAGPIE
Dec 2, 2011 at 5:21 PM
Comment #1its hard to think what kind of a shock she would have felt when she saw her own husband hanging in there garage
GeordieToon89
Dec 2, 2011 at 5:25 PM
Comment #2ED – John Carver doesnt really have a choice hes our assistant manager hes gota be there
GeordieToon89
Dec 2, 2011 at 5:36 PM
Comment #3BBC MOTD draw for euros… they just did a lovely little tribute to Gary Speed
Dannyo
Dec 2, 2011 at 5:39 PM
Comment #4Good by the club to postpone this at such short notice, won’t be many dry eyes during the swansea game then. Still the applause tomorrow, i’ll take part in that in my own livingroom.
boater
Dec 2, 2011 at 5:39 PM
Comment #5Loved Speed the player, gutted for his family and friends. But the reaction is getting messy now. One tribute, a chance for fans to pay their respects – and those that didn’t know him personally must move on. Can’t imagine Speed would have been comfortable with the Diana mania press coverage this week.
pardew no 1
Dec 2, 2011 at 5:58 PM
Comment #6I hope the fans will sing one Garry speed one Garry speed
GeordieToon89
Dec 2, 2011 at 6:00 PM
Comment #7Ukraine – Sweden – France – ENGLAND
England vrs France 1st game
Toonboy_84
Dec 2, 2011 at 6:01 PM
Comment #8@7
Could have been a lot worse. Poor ROI have no chance.
GeordieToon89
Dec 2, 2011 at 6:11 PM
Comment #9Toonboy_84 – A fancie Ireland to get through that group mate… Ireland play as a team fantastically and have the most amazing set of fans a fancie them to beat Croatia beat Italy and possibly hold Spain to either a draw or a narrow defeat.. and they’ll finish 2nd
A) 1st – Russia – 2nd – Czechs
B) 1st – Netherlands – 2nd Germany
C) 1st – Spain – 2nd Ireland
D) 1st – England – 2nd France
really hope Ireland go through, ther is always a shock team in these tournments anyone remember Greece in 2004?
Special K
Dec 2, 2011 at 6:12 PM
Comment #10As an Irishman I’m quite happy with that group. Heading over to the championships with the lads so there good games with good teams and in Poland thank god. Didn’t fancy Ukraine.
On the plus side we’ve had the better of Italy in recent history, we could very easily get a result against Croatia & perhaps parking the bus will get us something against Spain like England’s 2nd XI did a couple of weeks ago.
On the negative side we could probably get murdered by all 3
mattnufc
Dec 2, 2011 at 6:16 PM
Comment #11It’s ironic for NUFC fans the first match is England vs France, who to support?
It looks a v good group for England, hope we can capiltalise.
mattnufc
Dec 2, 2011 at 6:18 PM
Comment #12@10
Spain should obviously win the group but I think 2nd place is all to play for.
toonLYF
Dec 2, 2011 at 6:20 PM
Comment #13i’ll be supporting France/Netherlands this year, lost interest in England about 5 year ago
AP's Black & White Army
Dec 2, 2011 at 6:31 PM
Comment #14Ho’way France! Ho’way Yohan! 🙂
roshan MAGPIE
Dec 2, 2011 at 6:34 PM
Comment #15it will be great to see if ben ARFA OBERTAN and CABAYE in france first 11 which seems to be unlikely
GeordieToon89
Dec 2, 2011 at 6:35 PM
Comment #16guna wack a 5a on Ireland getting to the Semi Final
GeordieToon89
Dec 2, 2011 at 6:39 PM
Comment #17toonLYF – Av lost interest in England since we started appointing foreign managers a dont agree with it.. when Trevor Brooking announced the other day tht Capello could stay as manager a e-mailed the FA kicking off big style… a personally believe the manager of any country should be from that country all the players need to be english so why cant we have an english manager? and a also dont agree with the switching country rule a think you should only be allowed to play for the country of birth nevermind where your parents wer born or where you have been schooled
stuart no9
Dec 2, 2011 at 6:52 PM
Comment #18now that garys wife is going to attend the tribute, it is going to be more emotional when we play Swansea .W hen you think of everyrhing gary achieved , the clubs he played , getting capped for wales , the saddest moment in his football career was leaving newcastle. how fitting she wants to be here when we pay our tribute.nufc should feel honored that she still holds newcastle in such high regard and wants to be here, in the place her husband loved so much
Graeme
Dec 2, 2011 at 8:43 PM
Comment #19The only good news out of this is I will be home in time to make the Cardiff game. Will be a tough day, remember him well.
Graeme
Dec 2, 2011 at 8:44 PM
Comment #20OOOOOPS, Swansea game, so sorry