George Baldock: The humble warrior who touched hearts at Sheffield United as sad death leaves Blades reeling

No-one grows up and dreams of a career in sports writing, as I did as a young boy, with the hope of writing tribute pieces to people - and yes, footballers are people - tragically taken well before their time. But it is a sad by-product of the game that grips us all so much, and of getting to know the human beings behind the players we watch on a weekend.

The horrible, tragic, stunning news about George Baldock this evening has rocked a lot of people associated with Sheffield United. He was 31 years old; with a young family and the promise of a new adventure in Greece ahead. He had done the hard yards, so to speak, and climbed the mountain at Bramall Lane; this was supposed to be his time to savour the view.

Others were far closer to Baldock but one of the pleasures of this job is the peek behind the curtain at the individuals we’d otherwise only get to see from long distance on the pitch. I still remember vividly speaking to Baldock for his first outside media interview when he joined United in the summer of 2017; even over the phone you could sense the excitement in his voice, the memory of 7,000 rowdy Blades taking over Stadium:MK on their way to the League One title a few months earlier. At a quiet part of the game, he admitted, he allowed himself a glance over at them in amazement.

Soon those fans were hailing him as one of their own. Baldock came from Buckinghamshire, rather than Birley, but the biggest compliment you could pay him on the football pitch is that he was a true Sheffield United player. A warrior, a man never to take a backward step. Exactly the type you would want in the trenches alongside you; on your side rather than the opposition.

It’s true; he was angry on the pitch. Baldock booking bingo was a regular thing when he got wound up and it’s both admirable and a little surprising that he was never sent off in a United shirt. His performance against big pal Jack Grealish in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley stands out in my memory, as does his goal away at Tottenham Hotspur’s shiny stadium that was so new you could almost smell the paint still drying on the walls.

'Mr Angry' George Baldock leaves indelible mark on Sheffield United after seven-year love affair

It was some journey, via detours in the National League with Tamworth and a random loan spell in Iceland that helped shape him into the player and man he was. He was an interviewer’s dream; so eloquent in his answers and never reliant on cliches. We had half an hour once in a sun-drenched courtyard in Portugal at United’s pre-season training base - just me and him, the muscly Baldock perfectly tanned and the chubby, pasty boy from Sheffield - and I wish it could have been half a day. We touched on all manner of topics, of life and family and, eventually, football.

When news like this filters through, it’s funny where the mind goes to. At first you engage ‘work-mode’ and almost go into auto-pilot. There is news to report, so report it. It’s only afterwards that it really starts to sink in and as I sit here writing this, in the dead of night and with the news barely an hour old, it still doesn’t feel quite real. It was the same with Maddy Cusack’s tragic passing just over a year ago. It was only a few weeks or months later, putting my baby daughter to bed, that a memory of Mads promising to take her onto the pitch as a mascot came to me. Then, all of a sudden, it sank in.

I remember Baldock’s presence in the media room at Shirecliffe, as committed to a game of darts or pool as he was a tackle. I remember that ridiculous goal against Swansea, and the fact that he couldn’t quite believe himself that he had scored it. I remember doing a long interview with him at Nonna’s on Ecclesall Road after promotion, even down to the little details of him insisting in paying for our coffees. It meant nothing in the grand scheme of things but it also said everything, to me, about the type of man he was.

Everyone will have their favourite memory of Baldock the player, and Baldock the man. He did not grow up in Buckinghamshire dreaming of playing for Sheffield United but he quickly fell in love with the club and made it home. He epitomised everything this great football club stands for - commitment, graft and hard work, but no shortage of quality as well. He was a fierce competitor on the pitch and a humble man off it. In his final interview after leaving, he admitted that he would always be a fan of the Blades. The biggest tragedy is that always came far too soon.

Fly high, Starman.