This week's Pressing matter

[dave.woodhall]

http://www.thebirminghampress.com/2011/11/28/it%e2%80%99s-not-that-important/

[PaulWinch again]

Sums up pretty much how I feel about the events of the weekend.

[Clampy]

Another good article Dave.

Although i thought we should have won yesterday and i wished we had, a draw felt right in the circumstances.

[SamTheMouse]

Pretty much on the money. It seems harsh to judge the players' performance, given the sombre circumstances, but it's McLeish's weird decisions that are hampering them more than anything.

[darren woolley]

I agree with you Dave good article.

[Hookeysmith]

Dave - forgive me but is this only circulated on line or on here?

Great piece and summed up in a respectful manner "We are not Birmingham city" we have better players than that

[Steve R]

With regards to 'should the game have been played', to postpone the game would have been too drastic a gesture too soon. Everyone says their thoughts are with the family, it felt as if postponement would have intruded upon what was first and foremost their grief.

What happened was far better - an opportunity for football to pay its immediate respects, with a more considered tributeto be paid in accordance with the wishes of his family at a later time.
 

[Lambert and Payne]

Brilliant article Dave, sums up everything I felt about this recent events

[dave.woodhall]

Dave - forgive me but is this only circulated on line or on here?

Great piece and summed up in a respectful manner "We are not Birmingham city" we have better players than that

It's online.

[Legion]

Wise words. You should take up a career in journalism.

[Monty]

Very aptly put Dave, especially "fame and fortune can no more insulate against mental illness than it can against being run over crossing the road." Speaking from my own experiences that social aspect of shame is one of the biggest barriers against helping people with the illness, and it's about time everyone understood that it is an illness as much as asthma, cancer or the 'flu.

[villajk]

Good article, Dave.

Particularly this paragraph:

Villa’s performance was better than the Surrender on White Hart Lane, which is just as well, but the problems are still there. I honestly don’t know why Alex McLeish is doing what he does – we’re not Birmingham City, we have quality players and it’s about time they were used properly. Alex isn’t daft, he knew when he arrived that he wasn’t the popular choice. The first few games could be excused as in the circumstances he didn’t dare lose but he now seems determined to alienate even those of us who weren’t manning the barricades in an attempt to prevent his arrival at Villa Park.

[KevinGage]

It can be Monts, in the sense that certain people are susceptible to it and external factors have little/ no bearing on when it hits.

For others, there are 'triggers,'   or lifestyle events that bring it about.  It's such a broad church that it truly is hard to define.  But the symptoms and behaviours -when it bites- do seem to have a degree of consistency.

I was pretty much as ignorant as Dave and JG on the subject in 1998.  But having a family member affected by it opened my eyes to the condition.  Funny, that.   Well no, actually. Not funny at all.  Depression does not respect your status in life, your salary or your family environment. It makes no distinction.

The only thing I will say with regard to Stan that doesn't sit well with me, is that it his book gave the impression that moving to Villa was at least in part responsible for his declining mood- as was the fallout post Ulrika.  He genuinely seems to regret moving to the club, as -effectively- it meant his career was on the slide (he has a whole chapter devoted to the period Villa- Going Nowhere) and he wishes he'd stuck it out at Liverpool.  That's not consistent with my memories of the period (though it sounds an apt description for our current status).  Before and indeed soon after he was signed we were seen as an upwardly mobile side, outsiders for the title in some quarters.  But trying to accommodate a Stan Collymore not firing on all cylinders disrupted the team dynamic.

If I've misinterpreted what he said I apologise, as I do have sympathy for him -and indeed anyone- who has to battle the Black Dog.

That may or may not include the late Gary Speed, as it's still too early to conclude that depression had any part to play in his tragic demise.

[Monty]

Like I say, I can only speak from my own experiences, which tend to suggest that these triggers are almost universal, but have to or can be spotted earlier or later before it's too late and the mood descends. Anyway, the details are probably a discussion for another thread.

As you say, we cannot speculate on the reasons for Gary Speed's drastic and tragic action. The only thing that can be said is that, on the face of it at least, a man, by all accounts a good man, with a wife and children, is unlikely to have been in a rational state of mind to have done what he's done, which would suggest depression or some other mental illness. We may never know - and if the family don't wish us to, we shouldn't - but that would seem the most likely reasoning at this stage. Certainly put the game in perspective.

[TopDeck113]

Good article, David.  I think a lot of people have been on the same journey as you regards mental health and the fact that wealth and status don't make you immune.  I know have.  Not the I have any excuses.  My dad was a big fan of Tony Hancock and when I was growing up regularly cited him as an example of the irrelevance of fame and fortune when it came to the well being of the mind.