Leave as Legends: Baldock, Basham, Norwood

Sheffield United have announced the departure of three indisputable legends; let's give them the send off they deserve.

Sam Parry

“Basham’s arriving!” and now he’s retiring.

Between those two moments, there is a delicious nook of pain and pleasure—the rise and the fall twice over. It is a reminder of what has passed and what might be. When players leave, the glance backwards is only ever fleeting. Nostalgia grows with time. But given what has happened this year, there is no better time for fans to pause and think back because, as fans, we have much to pause and think about: so, why not remember the good times?

That’s the thing. Football always looks forward, brutal in its lack of sentimentality. When David McGoldrick left Sheffield United, I was winding my way through airport security. Between editor David Taylor, author Jack Simpson and myself, we just about managed to squeeze out the fitting tribute he deserved before I boarded the plane.

In January, I wrote of John Fleck’s departure in live deadline day coverage for NTT20.COM, and not a single keystroke could come close to articulating the joy that he’d brought to fans. Players are here. Then they are not. Red and white today, some alien colour the next.

For George Baldock, Ollie Norwood and Chris Basham, their departure is timed all at once. In a season where anger, resentment and resignation have caught in the lungs like the smoke of dying flare, the Sunday send-off will be a moment equally sombre and nostalgic. But it is only a moment, and then we look forward again.

I can take them separately.

Few players tuck into the mould of the Blades’ identity like George Baldock. Aggressive and street smart. Snap, crackle and pop. Teetering on the edge of recklessness without ever falling over the tipping point of yellow turning red — ever! Many will look back and think on him as the best right-back for a generation, and that would be right. A competitor at the highest level. An almost Homeric Hero, seeking out the clash amidst the battle. Two promotions. And the finisher of one of the great Blades team goals with that thunder bastard.

Nobody epitomised the “good ancestor” like Chris Basham. Pure commitment. An unspectacular hard worker under the two Nigels, he forged a spectacular role as one piston in the over-lapping centre-back system that catalysed an engine of success. His is, alongside David McGoldrick, a story of the best Blades’ upstarts. An expectation smasher. A take-us-through-the-leaguer. Part of our lowest lows and highest highs. Someone who understands the contrast and contradictions of our football club. Three promotions. And the scorer of that goal against Leeds.

Ollie Norwood has been Sheffield United’s great unicorn, a quality player who, seemingly, should not exist in a red and white shirt, with vision and a passing range that is scarcely believable. Needle threading and first-touch finding. The best and most familiar patterns of play in my living memory swung about the Norwood pendulum. I can see them in front of me now. The diagonal to the wing back. Or that routine cross from wide-right, teed up into his path and driven into the box. He scored freekicks, he smashed home penalties, he passed like no Blades player could pass. Two promotions. And the owner of that f***ing ping.

George Baldock. Chris Basham. Ollie Norwood. To speak of these players as separate entities means painting in the sepia tones of their careers and not in the red and white of their success. And whilst that is a convenient point to make — they are all leaving on the same day — it’s nonetheless true.

So let’s speak of them as a unit.

For that is what they were.

It was, too, for the longest time, what we were. The Sheffield United identity: aggression, commitment and quality. The coordinates of our success, which took us from the Championship to the top flight, down and back again. And whilst I believe “identity” in football chimes like an unwound clock, there is, in the case of these three players, an authentic sense of what it meant to be a Sheffield Untied player.

Three little words: Aggression, commitment and quality.

Those three things aren’t easy to define. Or maybe they are too easy to define. Or perhaps the ambiguity allows our latest crop of would-be stars to steal from the constellation of the giants that have come before them, worked hard and delivered some of the best footballing memories I possess.

Yes, aggression, commitment and quality might be hard to pin down, but at the same time, they are so easy to pin up: if you can get anywhere close to what these lads have done for Sheffield United, you’ll be doing okay. That’s the message.

Take a look at George Baldock. Take a look at Chris Basham. Take a look at Ollie Norwood. Because if your Sheffield United career follows their path, you’ll be leaving Bramall Lane as a legend. Not many can say that.

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