Chris Wilder's emotional tribute to Sheffield United hero George Baldock

The Star, Sheffield

Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder talks about George Baldock, a player he brought to the club, after his tragic death, aged 31

Transcript

00:00Chris, so sad to be talking in such tragic circumstances. I know George was a

00:05special member of your group, so this is something that I know is going to be

00:08felt very deeply in the Sheffield United community.

00:11Yeah, 100%. It's just, just stunned really. Speaking to my wife, I think it's some

00:19quite matter-of-fact. I think we're getting to that age where we're going to

00:23more and more funerals and obviously through your life you lose people you

00:27love and you respect, but this just feels completely different to everybody

00:33and everybody I've spoke to obviously. Pals of mine, massive Sheffield United fans,

00:37people that I'm working with, players, current players, ex-players that I've

00:42been in contact with and they've been in contact with me. Managers, managers out

00:46of the Premier League, old managers that he played for. Just

00:52everybody's just absolutely stunned and numb really. I think that's the

00:55feeling that we've all got about it and still, what, less than 48

01:02hours, still feeling the same. So this is going to be, you know, and you

01:09look at it really selfishly as well. I think, you know, obviously I managed George

01:13through a number of years, but really I shouldn't look at it from a selfish

01:18point of view. I should look at it from, you know, the devastation it's caused to

01:22his family, his young family, to Annabelle, to the Dignhams, to Sam and his

01:28brother, to the Baldock family, you know, what they're feeling right now. So if

01:33I'm feeling this and players, ex-players, staff and supporters are feeling this,

01:41what are they feeling at this particular moment? So it's just tragic.

01:48There's a lot of people here who knew and loved George. I mean, just why was he

01:53such a popular figure? Yeah, just, you know, loads of things have been talked

01:57about and absolutely spot-on by everybody. What they've talked

02:01and how they talked about him as a footballer, but most importantly as a

02:07person, as a human being. So, and everything spot-on. What he was like as a

02:16player through that magical period that we had and he wasn't one to grab

02:22the headlines and, you know, the skipper was scoring goals and the other

02:27players were playing their part, but George was a huge personality and that

02:32huge driver, a huge culture carrier in everything that we did, you know, and

02:37how I wanted it to look, how the staff wanted it to look, how Sheffield

02:44United supporters wanted their team to look, how they wanted their players to act

02:48and represent them and the way they wanted their players to go about their

02:55business and George just epitomised everything on the pitch and off the

02:59pitch. He was a humble person off of it. Listen, we had rows, we had bust-ups,

03:04we had words. I think you would expect that between, you know, the two

03:08personalities that we're talking about, but we're all driving it

03:13forward and after the same outcome and after the same goal and everything that

03:19we did, Monday to Friday, you know, I'm a massive one in terms of standards and

03:24now even training should look and he was ultra competitive and as were the group

03:31and he drove that. He drove that with the other boys, you know, just even thinking

03:36about it now, you know, families have lost a son, players have

03:43lost a brother, you know, those boys that went to battle with George

03:49and he stood up to every challenge and, you know, just over the last 24

03:55hours, yeah, you sort of remember the battles that he had on the pitch, you

04:02know, when he first come to the Football Club, the promotion season, the end of

04:07the season, festivities, celebrations, he was front and centre of it all, on the

04:14stage, downstairs, the LA song that him and John Egan and a few of the

04:20other boys sort of designed and how that caught fire and then

04:25his performances in the Premier League, you know, week in, week out and it

04:31used to make me smile because, you know, one day it was Wolves are hard, next day

04:35it was Sterling, the next day, the next game it was Grealish,

04:43all these absolute top draw players and he just saw them off game by

04:49game and he respected them but when the whistle blew, he was after them

04:53and he set the tone for everything and along with the others and it was an

04:58absolute pleasure to manage. As I said, you know, there's times where we

05:02fell out, we had words but, you know, we all knew that got put to bed

05:06pretty quickly and the main ambition and the main focus was

05:13being successful in this Football Club and certainly he was a massive success.

05:17Can you remember when you first met him because, I don't know if you got a

05:21feeling straight away, but he really bought into everything that Sheffield

05:24United was about, it was like he's been here all his life really.

05:26Yeah, definitely, well listen, as I said, the culture was set in

05:322016, the first year in League One and then George came, I'd watched him, I'd known

05:38about him, he couldn't get in the MK Don's team but they were very good at the time.

05:42Karl Robinson had an excellent side there and he went on loan to Northampton

05:46and then he went on loan to Oxford and I watched him, I remember speaking to Robbo

05:50and saying, you've got to recall George because he's absolutely ripping it up at

05:54Oxford. Him and Kima Roof came in and I watched him and looked at him and

06:00thought, he'll do for me, he's absolutely perfect in what we're trying to achieve.

06:05Athletic, physical attitude and could play as well, you don't get to the stage

06:10of the career, what he did, playing in the Premier League and then

06:16playing internationally which was a fantastic achievement by not having

06:19ability as well, wanted to learn, wanted to work hard, wanted to compete, wanted to

06:24play and wanted to win most importantly. So it seems a small chunk of change that

06:30we paid for George in that period but quite rightly, what

06:35everybody's saying at this particular moment about one of, you know, there'll

06:40always be your TCs and your Badgers and your Brian Deans and your other players

06:44through the periods. Sabelas and even before my time, Grandad

06:50talked about Jimmy Hagan and players like that, Alan Hutchinson but

06:54George pound for pound was right up there in everything, he gave his maximum in

06:59everything that he did and as I said that's what every Chefs United fan wants

07:02and that's what I want as well.

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