Gary Speed: Short spell at Sheffield United but lasting impression left

But the wisdom accumulated in another decade and more of football did nothing to diminish Speed’s child-like enthusiasm for the game he broke into as a young title-winner at Elland Road.

By the time Speed moved to Bramall Lane on New Year’s Day 2008 he was a 36-year-old with 800 senior appearances for Leeds, his boyhood club Everton, Newcastle United and Bolton Wanderers, including a then-record of 535 in the Premier League.

The Blades only got 40 appearances – and six goals – in two-and-a-half seasons out of the midfielder and he only managed them for 18 matches before being offered the job he could not turn down, managing Wales, in 2010.

But what he brought to the South Yorkshire club was far greater than anything that could be actually measured in numbers.

The club had already been down the route of bringing an old pro to show his team-mates the way and start out in coaching when Neil Warnock signed Stuart McCall – who on Thursday returned as assistant manager – as a 38-year-old player-coach.

Bryan Robson went down a similar path when he brought in a midfielder whose game had been based around the same box-to-box attributes and leadership skills. When Chris Morgan was injured, Speed captained the Blades, just as he had captained all his other clubs.

Like McCall, he was another who came to Bramall Lane to give more than take, and his reputation for professionalism carried all before him.

Now an assertive leader with the career to back it up, he was a player young professionals could not fail to listen to and learn from, on the training ground as well as the pitch.

It is probably no coincidence that one of the world’s best right-backs, Kyle Walker, and England’s most expensive centre-back, Harry Maguire, were both knocking around at the time.

As well as being a great player, Speed was a fitness fanatic who ran the 2010 London Marathon in aid of the cancer charity set up by his recently-departed former Newcastle United manager Sir Bobby Robson.

The stamina that kept him playing for the Blades into his 40s, as well as his considerable footballing talent, was worked on meticulously.

“He came to the club and just wanted to impart his knowledge, help people as much as he could, and if there was a decision to be made, he was more than happy to make it,” said Kevin Blackwell, manager for much of Speed’s Bramall Lane career.

“He was a terrific leader of men.

“This isn’t just people paying lip-service, Speedo was highly regarded.

“He would go out on the training ground and do that extra bit of work.

“He worked his socks off and we used to say, ‘Look at Speedo.’

“In the last game he played it was just like a young apprentice starting and the enthusiasm just rubbed off on everybody.

“The training sessions at the club were awesome because Speedo was amongst it and it wasn’t right he wasn’t afraid to nail people and he did it in the right way.”

The Speed who joined the Blades was a devoted student of the game and like McCall, certain to stay in it beyond retirement, in his case forced by a back injury at the age of 41. He had already had a brief taste of coaching at previous club Bolton, and was persuaded by the Blades to turn down the manager’s job Swansea City in the summer of 2010.

So when Blackwell was sacked three games into the season – ironically a 3-0 defeat the hands of his mentor Neil Warnock proving decisive – it was no surprise chairman Kevin McCabe turned inwards.

Speed showed his independent thinking, appointing Sam Ellis as his assistant the day after he had been sacked from the same job along with Blackwell.

It would be wrong to pretend Speed’s time as Blades manager was a huge success – he lost half his matches – but what followed with Wales showed what might have been possible had he been there longer.

But what Speed brought to Sheffield United was about so much more than 58 matches.

It was about what he did on the training pitch and the dressing room, and a decade after his death continues to be about how others carry on his example.