Transfer Deadline Day might appear one of the most exciting days of the football season, but as Peterborough defender Jack Baldwin explains, it’s not all glamour.
Baldwin was a 20-year-old Hartlepool defender at the time of his deadline day move to Posh, a youthful centre-back making his first big transfer.
On January 31 2014, the young footballer was tucking into a chicken pasta bake when the call came.
“We abandoned dinner at the table – I think it was just a chicken pasta bake with some cheese on top. We ran upstairs, put some stuff in the back of the car and then set off.
“When I got to the ground my agent was there, we did the paperwork and we walked through to the manager’s office.
“We sat down with the manager who told me his plans and what his vision for me at the club was – after that I came back through, had the photos and did an interview.”
That all sounds hectic but reasonably straightforward, right? Perhaps, if you weren’t in the middle of starting a family.
“It wasn’t something I put out there straight away (starting a family). When I eventually spoke to the lads, if it came up in conversation then fine, but I just tried to keep myself to myself until I was a regular starter.
“The club arranged the hotel, so for three weeks I was trying to find somewhere suitable to live, obviously with the family coming along – I was coming to training and my partner was going out to view houses.”
Jose Mourinho is reportedly still staying in hotel accommodation as Manchester United manager – but while he might be able to afford a luxurious room, that’s a notion that a League One player just can’t entertain.
“It’s pretty difficult living out of a hotel, because obviously you’ve not got your home comforts,” said Baldwin. “The biggest thing for us was dinners and lunches – obviously hotel food can get a bit boring.
“When I came down my agent said chuck some stuff in a bag ready to go. So I had a bag of clothes for about three to four weeks that I had to keep washing and changing, because all my stuff was left up in Hartlepool, abandoned really.”
“I made my debut as a sub, got shoved in the back, hand-balled the ball in the penalty box and we lost 1-0,” the 24-year-old told the Press Association.
“In the back of my head I’m thinking, ‘what are the fans thinking about me here?’”
Baldwin is settled now, a regular player at the club where he has now spent the majority of his career – but departing from Hartlepool, a side that had made him feel welcome as a teenager, was perhaps more difficult than the modern fan allows themselves to believe.
“Saying goodbye to teammates was pretty much a text or something I did at a later date when I went back to get some stuff about a month later,” said Baldwin.
“I did go back to the club to see a few faces, such as the media staff who I was quite close with, for example.
“I was 18 when I moved up there, ages from where I grew up (London), but it’s a really friendly family club and they looked after me as much as they could.
“There was one lady who offered me a roast dinner if I ever fancied it! I grew very fond of the club and the fans.”
“I didn’t realise how chaotic it can be,” he said. “You hear about the big deadline day moves, but for me it was quite frantic and happened really quickly. One day I’m training with Hartlepool, and the next I’m off.”
