Baldock’s Posh refusal changed how we covered MK Dons online

Football transfers and late-breaking stories are not a new phenomenon - they happen all the time. But in the proper olden days (2011) when the internet for local newspapers was still a fledgling thing, and when print was king, one such incident showed us the power of the worldwide web.

Sam Baldock today announced his retirement from football at the age of 34, moving upstairs to a newly created role for him at Oxford United until he decides what he chooses to do long term.

The first off the production like at MK Dons after the club’s move, Baldock was something of a sacred and cherished entity while at Stadium MK. Hot properly to say the least, he attracted some attention in the summer of 2011 before he made his move to West Ham United, and one such attempt to lure him away caught us (well... me) at The Citizen out.

There had been talk earlier in the week leading up to the incident about a potential double swoop from rivals Peterborough United for both Baldock and Stephen Gleeson. Both played key roles in the play-off semi-finals a few months earlier, in which Posh prevailed, but both were considered key men by manager Karl Robinson at the time.

While Dons remained radio silent on the understood bids, Posh’s Barry Fry was instead very vocal on the topic, tipping off our colleague Alan Swann at the Peterborough Telegraph, who in turn gave us the quotes too. Not too happy, chairman Pete Winkelman gave me an ear-bashing over the phone for running with them in one of our editions.

It all looked to be dead in the water until a call on Wednesday lunchtime came through, confirming Dons had accepted the bid from Posh, and that Baldock was en route to London Road to seal the deal. With a few hours before our print deadline for the flagship title, the back page was drawn up - Baldock was leaving Dons.

Expecting the news at some point that evening, we made our way home. But as I pulled onto my driveway, the phone went. It was the Dons press officer.

“What time is your print deadline?!”

“Long gone, why?”

“He’s turned them down!”

Well... that’s the sports section for tomorrow scuppered, I thought to myself. As I said, the age of the internet for us in local papers was still in an infancy stage, and we didn’t get a lot of traffic. But we did still have a website, and we did still update it. So back into the office I went (no company laptop at my side back in the dark ages) to put out a story. Our paper - the sports section at least - the following morning was chip-shop wrapping before it even made it off the rollers.

As a means of apology for the late notice though, I was offered the chance to speak to Sam the following morning to get his side of the story. We’d heard in part from him via Dons’ channels, and what Mr Fry had to say from the Peterborough perspective, but with me, he was a bit more candid and a bit more open as we sat in the busy hotel reception area at Stadium MK, talking through what he really thought about the move. His ‘suspicions’ were confirmed, the move was not for him.

The tensions between the clubs had never been higher, and this latest incident acted as yet more accelerant on the fire both on and off the field.

But for us at the paper, it highlighted the internet revolution was firmly upon us (yes, it took us that long!). Match reaction went onto the website straight after games, every story written found a place online, and being contemporaneous became key.

A few months later, Baldock moved to West Ham. It was a Friday and we didn’t print again until Monday. But you bet it was online.