The space between Joe Shaw and Derek Dooley belongs to George Baldock and it has been that way since he died more than a fortnight ago.
Scarves, flags and football shirts form an impromptu shrine, heavy with photographs, candles, and fresh flowers laid upon those wilting and heartrending messages of love and gratitude.
They have grown to cover an area the size of a goal between the statues of two legends behind the stand named after Tony Currie, by consensus the greatest to have pulled on the shirt of Sheffield United.
Shaw made more than 700 appearances across two decades after the Second World War and still is revered as one of the all-time greats at Bramall Lane.
Dooley spanned the Steel City’s great divide, a potent young striker for Sheffield Wednesday who lost a leg to injury and managed the Owls before he was adopted by Sheffield United as a commercial director, chief executive and chairman.
Tributes to the late George Baldock at Bramall Lane are flanked by two Sheffield United greats in Joe Shaw and Derek Dooley
The former Blades star’s sudden tragic death has plunged the club into profound mourning
Originally chosen by fans for the David Bowie song, Baldock’s nickname at the club has taken on a sad new celestial dimension
Baldock, they call Starman. Originally because of a chorus to the tune of the David Bowie classic by fans when he went running down the right. ‘His name is Georgie Baldock and he’s f***ing dynamite’. Sadly, since his sudden tragic death at the age of 31, that comes with a new celestial dimension.
‘Still trying to get my head around this,’ said one hand-written message among the piles of tributes. ‘Tears shed and more to come on the 26th. It’ll be a tough day. Furious, angry, gorgeous George. Keep running down the wing.’
Inside the club they have been shaken. ‘It’s still with us,’ Blades boss Chris Wilder told Mail Sport on the eve of a defeat at Middlesbrough six days after losing at Leeds. Two defeats in a row after nine unbeaten at the start of the Championship season.
‘I know the family are suffering and this will take time for everybody to get over because of George’s personality.
‘The thing about football is there’s always another game you’re trying to win. At Leeds with a minute’s applause and then bang, game on at Elland Road with all that entails. Everything out of the window, nobody is thinking about what’s happened and how it might be affecting the players.
‘I don’t know how it has affected each of the players individually, but I’ve a good idea that it has and will do because he left his mark on everybody. In a world where footballers have a reputation for being on a different planet, aloof from the people who ultimately pay their wages, he had the common touch.’
Wilder, now in his second spell in charge, built a team in his first spell that would scale from the depths of League One to finish ninth in the Premier League, threatening the European places before the Covid lockdowns interrupted the season.
Chris Wilder has overseen two defeats in the wake of Baldock’s death after an unbeaten start
Baldock was originally recruited by the manager – now in his second stint – in summer 2017
Baldock quickly became the epitome of the team and an archetypal player in Wilder’s side
It was a team with quality sourced at bargain prices with tactical balance and those famous overlapping centre-halves yet the key to success was its personality. Wilder sought it out in the belief it could lift the team beyond the sum of their parts.
He talks of ‘culture carriers’, players who influence others, and he knew he had found one when contacts at Oxford, one of his former clubs, tipped him off about a full-back on loan from Milton Keynes Dons. Wilder swooped in to sign Baldock in 2017.
‘George was the epitome of that team,’ says Peter Beeby, a Blades fan of more than 50 years and co-author of Mucky Boots, the story of the club’s former owner Kevin McCabe.
‘He was the archetypal Sheffield United player. He was your Blades avatar. Not the most talented but talented. Right up there when it came to commitment. He was all in.
‘Strong on the ball. Quick, tenacious, angry and a lot of Sheffield United fans are angry. They could relate to George. He was all the things those supporters drawn from working class origins really appreciated.’
Ask fans about Baldock memories and they might mention the crashing volley scored in a 4-0 win against Swansea in February 2022 on the run at the Bramall Lane end. Typical of his direct and dynamic style.
Or his gutsy display in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley a year later, when he nullified Jack Grealish but could not stop Manchester City winning, but they are just as likely to mention his heroics off the pitch.
The player had a style which fans could relate to including a battling spirit and determination
Standout moments from Baldock’s time in red and white include his volleyed strike vs Swansea
Baldock also put on a command performance against £100m-man Jack Grealish in the FA Cup
Like the time he heard of a junior football club saving to buy a defibrillator to ensure one of the boys could continue playing despite a heart condition. Baldock bought it personally then politely asked them not to publicise it, which they didn’t until after he had died.
Or chance encounters on a night out in the bars of Ecclesall Road, or at Gilmours coffee shop on Greystones Road, unofficial headquarters for the Blades players of that era, in the city’s leafy south-west.
‘My abiding memory of George is from last season, seeing him walk into Gilmours with his baby in his arms,’ said Beeby. ‘He looked like the proudest man in the world.’
Wilder’s last heart-to-heart with Baldock was at a meeting near the end of last season. With relegation imminent and his contract about to expire, they discussed a three-year offer from Panathinaikos and agreed the time was right for him to move on.
‘He was super excited,’ says Wilder. ‘He knew he needed a new challenge. Financially it was a good move. Securing his family’s future was big for him. He deserved a shot of playing for a really big club, and they are a really big club.
‘It was a brave move, just as it was when Greece manager Gus Poyet came to us exploring his opportunities. He must have done some digging to find George’s connection through a grandma.
‘But George was all in again. And reading what the Greece and Panathinaikos players have said about him goes hand in hand with what anyone here would say. They let him into their group, and he commanded their respect. That shows what George was about.’
The 31-year-old has been equalled mourned in Greece, the country whose shirt he wore at international level
Baldock signed for Panathinaikos over the summer after his contract with United expired
Excited by the new challenge, Baldock relished playing at a top club in a whole new league
Panathinaikos are preparing to go into their first home game since Baldock’s death on October 9 with the promise to dedicate their season to him. ‘George is looking from the skies,’ said their former Manchester United winger Facundo Pellistri before Thursday’s UEFA Conference League tie against Chelsea. ‘We are going to do everything for him.’
Footballers forge strong bonds. They learn to rely on each other, especially in Wilder’s teams, and the one he built at Bramall Lane shared both huge successes and tough times.
They went up and up to the Premier League, finished ninth and went down, then up again under Paul Heckingbottom and down again, winning battles and losing battles.
‘They become tighter than the man in the street will recognise,’ says Wilder. ‘They bond and we want them to bond because they’re going into hostile environments, the backyards of fierce rivals.
‘In the Premier League we relied on togetherness to get results. We weren’t relying on superstar footballers to flick a switch and knock one in from 30 yards. Every part of the journey we’ve been on together.
‘The togetherness was key, and George was front and centre of it so to lose someone with that personality is bound to affect them.’
The bonds formed within teams cannot be understated and Baldock was especially motivated by the group dynamic
Sheffield United are braced for heightened emotions against Stoke on Saturday, their first home game since Baldock’s death, with many tributes planned from images on the screens to a pre-match minute’s silence, wreaths to be laid and applause in the second minute.
There is a young supporter singing Bowie’s Starman and teams will walk out to the song. Baldock’s family have been invited to attend. His partner Annabel is from Sheffield. Their son Brody is one.
There will be unfurled across the Shoreham Street Kop a giant banner funded by fans, who quickly smashed the £1,600 fundraising target and will donate the surplus to good causes they thought would appeal to Baldock.
Among them, an educational trust fund for the two children of Jonny Gascoigne, creator of the popular Shoreham View vlog reporting on all things Blades for the last 11 years who died by suicide last month at the age of 35.
Hundreds of Blades fans attended his funeral on Saturday where his father Kevin insisted upon a moment of silent reflection within the ceremony for all those present to remember Baldock and a collection raised more than £600 for Andy’s Man Club, a suicide prevention charity in Sheffield.
He set an image of Jonny and George created for him by a season-ticket holder nearby on the Kop as his picture on X, formerly Twitter, and is determined to employ the power of football to find some good in the tragedy of his son’s death.
Sheffield United are set to play their first home game since Baldock’s passing on Saturday
The club and its supporters are preparing to come together to honour Baldock’s memory
‘Football has the power to unite people,’ said Kevin. ‘I’ve had thousands of messages from fans of all clubs. There was even a tribute on the scoreboard at Sheffield Wednesday. It has been awful but if I can save one life and save another family going through what we’ve been through I would do anything.’
This has been a difficult, heartbreaking time for the Sheffield United family, little more than a year after Maddy Cusack, the captain of their women’s team took her own life at the age of 27.
The club is in grief but will come together on Saturday and trust football to give them strength and comfort as they honour the memory of their Starman.
To donate to the fund raising money for causes close to George Baldock’s heart, visit: www.gofundme.com/f/george-baldock-a-banner-for-george-from-the-fans.
