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2011/2012 Season Thread


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that's the thing about depression. people who are suffering rarely present outward symptoms and show how bad they're feeling.

collymore posted a startlingly honest blog post about his own depression earlier this week: http://www.twitlonger.com/show/ecoqm1

It's great that he's raising awareness and is able to write/talk so frankly about it. I find it strange that people get uncomfortable when you speak about depression. I guess its not as simple as saying that its just like any other illness, as it is pretty unique. I mean, the vast majority of people don't have an understanding of it like they do with the flu, say. Nevertheless, it should really be treated like any other illness.

From experience, the only way to get through it properly is to talk about it, and Collymore is on the money with people's "pull your socks up" attitude. Its almost daunting to even think about the extent a case of depression would have to get for someone to just give up and kill themself. It pains me to contemplate how dark his mind must have been. Its all incredibly upsetting...

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I guess it's a cultural thing, people in Britain and, particularly men in Britain, aren't expected to talk about feelings. professionally, there's a culture where you can't show weakness or take time off lest you cost money in lost productivity to your employer and the economy. people just get scared to talk about stuff or even to look in the mirror and see that something isn't right.

today's been horrible. it's affected so many people on varying levels, and his poor family will be just lost. I hope the reports about the tabloids camped outside his house are exaggerated, it would be particularly ironic with the leveson enquiry in full swing. they have no fucking shame.

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I really hope so too.

For some reason, and I don't know why, I found Michael Owen's tribute to Gary Speed most harrowing.

Just cannot believe the news regarding Gary Speed. We waved at each other a couple of days ago dropping our kids off at school. I'm numb. He has died aged 42. So sad. He lived local to me and we knew his family. He leaves behind 2 sons. Tragic.

It really is tragic.

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Guest Gladstone

I'm still struggling to comprehend the fact that Speed has died. It really shows that you sometimes have no idea what's going on in someone's private life and that depression can be really difficult to detect. I've heard of people that I know that are suffering with depression and it's always a shock because they seem so content to the outside world. There's also still a massive misconception with depression, that people with success etc. shouldn't suffer with depression - a guy I know very well often slags off Robbie Williams for claiming to be depressed because Robbie Williams obviously "has it all" so couldn't possibly be depressed. Ridiculous. You see that footage of Gary Speed on Football Focus from the weekend and you just can't believe that 2-3 days later he took his own life. 42 is far too young to die, and he would have had so much left to give not just to football, but he could have been a great role model for his two sons growing up (no idea how old his sons are, but I presume they're still kids) as he did genuinely seem to be a top bloke as well as a great footballer and had the potential to be a great manager too. Really, really sad news.

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The Gary Speed situation is horrific. Absolutely terrible. I watched that guy carry wasters like Jermaine Jenas in our midfield for years. He was such a good player: not exactly a technical wizard but so much heart and determination. A very clever player, too. Speed clearly had the fabled "footballing brain" and always made the right pass. He rarely had a bad game for us and scored a silly amount of headers. I always felt confident that we'd score from corners because Speed was so good at running into the box and powering it past the 'keeper.

He was a model professional on and off the pitch. We had some great seasons during the Robson era, but the club was full of horrible twats like Jenas, Bramble and Dyer. That just made me appreciate Speed's level-headed professionalism even more and I always enjoyed listening to him speak about the club.

I felt like shit for a long period of time yesterday. I was 10 when he signed for us and a gutted 16 year-old when he left. It's an absolutely awful feeling when somebody that you admired, looked-up to and respected during your most impressionable years passes away. Just dreadful.

It's tragic that football's governing bodies aren't doing more to help players deal with depression and other mental health problems. These guys perform in one of the most over-the-top, high-pressure environments imaginable. I feel awful when I make a mistake in a five-a-side game: I can't imagine what must be going through these guys' heads with the national press and millions of fans at their throat whenever they make the slightest of errors.

Gary Speed was universally admired, respected and liked. He had an excellent playing career, a great lifestyle, a family and a burgeoning career managing his country. Despite all this, Speed felt so alone that he killed himself. Gary Speed, Robert Enke, and the German referee who attempted to commit suicide last week show that it's time for football to do something about this terrible illness.

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It's tragic that football's governing bodies aren't doing more to help players deal with depression and other mental health problems. These guys perform in one of the most over-the-top, high-pressure environments imaginable. I feel awful when I make a mistake in a five-a-side game: I can't imagine what must be going through these guys' heads with the national press and millions of fans at their throat whenever they make the slightest of errors.

That's a really valid point, and something that needs to be clamped down, though it's much easier said than done. Football fans demand absolute perfection from the players they have, and always seem to demand world class requisitions in weak positions. Nothing is ever good enough for any football fan at any level and that starts from the mouth of the supporter and finishes on the shoulders of the player.

It's completely unlike the situation of Gary Speed, but United fringe midfielder Darron Gibson registered his own Twitter account a few months back, and within a couple of hours he'd received a torrent of abuse from his own clubs supporters, which forced him to close it down. It's pretty hideous to think that a clubs supporters could do that and it indicates the pressures players are under from the demands of the supporters. Sir Alex watches Gibson train every day and obviously thinks he's good enough to do a job. What's he meant to do? Say "No, boss. The fans don't think I'm good enough, so I best not play today"?

If a player was to go online and read their own supporters club forums and messages boards, I imagine some would be horrified at the way they are being slagged off, and pretty much being told that they aren't good enough at their job by the supporters of the club they play for. I think if I was a player, I'd find such things quite gutting, to be slagged off for the job you are doing, and a job you have been training to do since you were a kid essentially. Then when you drop a howler or even a slight error, the papers are shining every spotlight they have on it, and your own fans are calling for your head. Now we live in a time where booing your own players off the pitch is deemed acceptable, it's hideous to think what could be going through the minds of professional players, especially when a man like Gary Speed appeared to spiritedly and positive in the public eye.

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Guest Gladstone

Totally agree with Soda Jerk and Murr. The pressure in football is ridiculous these days. Fans are so impatient and it seems less about supporting your team through thick and thin than it ever used to. It may always have been this way in the stands but it would used to have stopped there.

A quite ridiculous insight into the minds of football "fans" comes from my personal experience as a primary school football coach. I'd been reading up on the negative impact of parents shouting from the sidelines (including encouragement). Pretty much - if loads of parents shout encouragement from the sideline, at best kids get distracted but at worse, it heaps pressure on them because, for example, if your Dad shouts "SHOOT!!" as you're bearing down on goal, your 10 year old mind knows that you have to score or you'll be letting your dad down and you inevitably buckle under the pressure because you're just a little kid. I asked the parents to stop shouting anything from the sideline and explained my thinking and you'd be absolutely amazed at the reaction I got from one or two of the parents - and we have a pretty nice bunch of parents. One dad even said he had the right to criticise his own children if he wanted to. Of course he can, but when the guy volunteering to take time out of his life to help your kids asks that you don't and gives very good reasons why you shouldn't, you'd think he'd be willing to give it a try!! The point I'm trying to make is that team sports come absolutely full of pressure, and this culture of criticism and shouting at players etc. comes from a very early age and "fans" seem to think they have the right to criticise and shout abuse at players (some other teams we've faced have very rowdy sidelines - last season, I heard a shout of "that's pathetic" aimed at wee boy who had misplaced a pass) because they are their kids, or because they've paid their money to get into the stadium or whatever. People are fucking dicks to be honest.

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Some good points brought up the last few posts. Especially about the amount of pressure on players these days, as discussed the pressure from fans is more intense than ever and this goes alongside a level of scrutiny from the media which is higher than ever before too. Perfection is expected from top sports stars in their private lives these days as well as on the pitch.

We obviously don't know where Speed's depression came from but it's definitely an illness which is sadly misunderstood and kind of taboo in society and even more so in football. If any good is to come from this tragic event hopefully it will make more people aware that people such as Gary Speed who appear to "have it all" can be suffering too. And this would hopefully make it easier for people suffering to seek help. In Germany there's been a foundation set up to help footballers with mental illnesses after the goalkeeper Robert Enke committed suicide in 2009.

It's strange that before if someone asked what I'd feel when Gary Speed dies I couldn't imagine I would be so affected by it. But the manner in which it's happened and the fact that like millions of others I saw him live on tv only a few hours before have made the news really hit me.

I actually knew someone (a little, was more a friend of my mum) who hung himself last year in very similar circumstances. Similar age, had a family, always appeared happy etc. Absolutely horrible thing for the family to go through. Which makes all the talk of the tabloid hacks sitting in wait just infuriating.

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It's actually very widespread among people who are apparently successful.

One of my best friends is a freelance clinical psychologist, and among her clients she has several high-flying businessmen/women including company directors, CEOs. Basically, intelligent family people, earning mega-bucks, living in beautiful houses, driving fast cars etc. The perceived relationship between depression and success is completely incorrect and is at the root of why depression is so misunderstood.

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http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/id/989733/didier-drogba-rejects-new-chelsea-deal-for-final-payday?cc=5739

Didier Drogba has turned down a new one-year deal with Chelsea, and his agent has revealed the Ivorian will "go where he is offered the most money".

....

"Once you are well into your 30s you have to go to a club where you can be certain you'll be able to pay your bills. LA Galaxy are a possibility among many others.

:laughing:

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Poor Diddy. Living on the breadline because of the tight purse strings of Abramovic. Won't be long until he's on the council housing lists and applying for emergency loans from the Job Centre to keep the lecky meter topped up.

I'm going to start a charity to raise funds for footballers in poverty. Obviously the poverty line for a footballer is much higher than the one of a regular person, but it's just as much of a problem.

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At least he admits to being a complete cash-whore mercenary. I'd rather than that someone who fakes the whole 'I love the club and the fans but they don't appreciate me enough to pay me fairly for my contribution' or something along those lines like Tevez and countless others have done.

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