According to the article on the bbc, sounds like he changed his mind late on after originally being happy to stay
Sounds like Peterbrough wouldn't take no for an answer also

To be fair to Baldwin if you are getting a significant pay increase and a chance to play at a higher level you are probably going to be keen to go, hopefully he does well and we have a sell on clause
He seems like a nice bloke and he is very articulate on his interview with the mail

Did u expect him to be happy as oppose to unhappy at losing him like?

Baldwin was happy to stay till his agents got into his head.

We didn't have to sell him he was still in contract, dont understand this thing with the agent got into he's head

I over heard a lad in the exec boxes on Saturday asking Russ why they let him go so cheaply and that was his response, agent turned his head. I don't understand this either. He proceeded to ask if he was still under contract which was replied yes, then Russ said " he's not going to better himself at Peterbrough is he? ". This lad said to him, but they have ambition to play at a higher level than league 1 while Russ and all management at HUFC are happy to play mid table league 2, to which he replied " whats your point ".

I think the club are turning this round onto Jack Baldwin as he hasn't got a voice up here to defend himself, and it's a cop out by the club. RG ( while I was stood waiting for me friend ) never once had a nice word to say about JB and I think that just shows the character of our Chief Exec.

If you were Jack Baldwin I think it would be pretty hard to turn Peterborough down...

1) Closer to family and missus who is expecting
2) More money
3) Division higher
4) Just outside play offs
5) More money

also being at peterborough will also open doors at most premiershit clubs, if he is good enough.

When was the last time any of the "big three" up here took a chance on a pools player?

Baldwin will have been advised of this, and so the move to anywhere was the right move.

Genuinely refuse to blame the lad. He'll do well down there, so good luck Jack

If anyone blames the player for wanting to move then they're an imbecile and a 'lovely lovely person', FACT!

I'm sure the agent didnt turn his head with the offer of a 1000% pay-rise to play at a better club with better players, better facilities at a higher level. Blaming an agent is a lazy excuse. If he didn't have an agent it would have been his family, his missus, his friends, his team-mates and more importantly himself turning his head. All he would see once his head was turned? The obvious benefits. I live down south and if I was given the chance to move closer to home for all those factors I'd walk there myself. Pools need to face it, were a small club. It's the football food chain. If he kicks on like we know he can then Peterborough need to face facts that the likes of QPR and west ham will be able to 'turn the lads head' with better opportunities. We got £500k plus add-ons when his deal was up in the summer. Cooper says he could have went to a higher level/bigger club' and then in the same breath says 'we tried to keep him here and offer him a new contract' why would he re-sign at Pools in mid-table League two on peanuts if Peterborough towards the top of League One isn't good enough for him? Unfortunately it's inevitable it's going to be the same with Luke James in the summer. Good luck to the lads. They've been great servants to the club while they've been here.

If agent didn't push it through in jan. Hed have rejected the new contract in the summer and he'd have left for less than £50k compensation in the summer anyway.If he could have went straight to championship why did they accept Peterborough's bid and not a similar one from a champ club? Because there wasn't any.

although he was out of contract in the summer compo, he kind of wasnt, as pools give him a 2 year deal with an automatic option of the 3rd year, which im sure we'd have added on.

Yeah but the player can reject this option mate. The same will happen to James we have to accept that other higher people want him and as we arnt looking like going up we need to face facts.

He cant.

We kept porter and liddle an extra year because of this 3rd year, probably even sweeney a few seasons ago.

Sorry but he can and I bet James goes the same way in the summer.

What makes you think he can?

It's in the contract that pools can extend it into a 3rd year if they want too, they sign a 2 year deal knowing this, which player has ever turned it down? It's not something they can turn down it's part of the deal mate.

Like i said porter wanted to go back to oz a year before he did but we got him 1 more year cos of the automatic 3rd year.

Well there are loopholes mate. Can I also ask how much we got for Porter and Liddle after this extension? Would you rather have another 18months or £500K, because thats what it boils down to.

what difference does any amount of cash make? None will be re-invested in the summer for cooper. Even if we got 5 million for baldwin (exageration I know), but none of that would have went back in to the team. It would have balanced books and nothing more

The contract has its good points and it's bad points, i cant see a loophole really you sign a deal knowing it's 2 years and if the club want you longer they can make it 3 years, they know this when they sign it so loopholes are not there.

Give me the player for an extra year if im honest, the money isnt exactly put into the pot n given back to the manager, porter was awesome in his last year so im more than happy to admit letting him go back to aus for nothing at the end of his contract was a good deal as his goals kept us up in his last year.

6) Signing on Bonus of 10% (£50k)

Nope, they can't.

Where do some people get off with this sort of bilge?

You'd have thought IOR had never bought a player or invested in the team.

Name one example of us selling a player under IOR and the money simply being used to 'balance the books?

People just make stuff up as they go along so they can have digs at the owners....

Peter Hartley? Who did we buy after we sold him?

how much did we get for him?

Around 30k. It allowed us to give Duckworth a long term contract if I'm not mistaken.

I love the way people think that because the club got £100k for a player then used it to offset some costs such as paying for the wages of others that they're doing it wrong.

Do people think if we sell Baldwin for £500k that money should be spent now on a new player or put into the summer transfer budget where we can either pay more wages or buy one or two players?

The naivety of people when it comes to financial matters is why fan run clubs like Locomotive 1883 are doomed to fail.

Agent pocketing £30k may have had something to do with it. This is perhaps what Cooper is alluring to. Along with the timing, an agent has pocketed a large wedge and left HUFC without time to find a replacement in the transfer window.

Agents are supposed to look after players but in the end how many do it with the players best interests at heart when they can make hefty sums like that, and that's at league one/two level?

It looks like a good move for both clubs and Jack Baldwin so I really don't see the problem (apart from the timing issue and Cooper is obviously annoyed). Although I'd be interested to know how Cooper had kept Jack happy up until 7pm Friday. Something we'll never know for certain and will only ever be speculated.

Good luck Jack.

Which you are allowed to spend 55% of.

We've also brought in Harewood, and three loanees Dolan, Barmby and Williams.

Obviously none of these count.

I suspect that those 3 were brought in due to the money saved by getting rid of Howard.

It would have cost money to get rid of Howard though

We kept Porter an extra year when he wanted to be off so we could have kept Baldwin. Im sure were not daft enough to write the contract with loopholes to get out of it.

Anyway there is no blame with Baldwin and none with the club imo.

The only thing we could have done different in my opinion is make public their bid in the hope of higher offers coming in.

Is anyone else a little bit miffed at his choice though? Peterborough?? I think it shows a lack of ambition. Could have chosen better IMO.

It cost the club money to get rid of Howard.

I thought that at first but with a bit more reflection and getting past the disappointment in us losing him it is an excellent move for him.

He could have signed for Sunderland for example and disappeared apart from the odd loan spell for two or three years. He's gone to a club who are competing for Promotion to the Championship, a club who'll he be a key player for straight away and a club with a track record of moving players on to higher clubs. I bet he gets a big move in 18 months when he is ready for higher level first team football.

I said here last week peterbrough have a good reputation for developing young players from the lower leagues and most importantly - playing them week in week out. Boyd, McLean etc and Baldwin said exactly the same in his interview.

Their chairman has good patter, he looks the type to get in the head of a young lad n sell him the club, their managers the son of alex ferguson.

You cant blame him for going, it's a good move. 2/3 years of playing regular footy their and baldwin could be looking at a move to the premiership very easily.

We could have kept him but got bugger all for him in the summer, we also have a sell on clause as well so we got a good deal as he will play week in week out for Posh as they lost Zakuani. They will also get him on the weights and beef him up a bit. Lets be honest they have a better track record than us at developing players and are up the road from London combine this with having Ferguson there and so called "mates" of his dads he will be more in the shop window there.

You are 100% wrong, the option is the clubs not the players, as pointed out Liddle is an example of this

Like I was wrong about Baldwin going in the first place to Posh?

Didnt you say Baldwin, James and Flinders were going last year?

We will have paid him a percentage of his wages for the rest of his contract as a lump sum. That's normally how mutual terminations work.

One is a prediction, the other an incorrect statement

If we have an option on a player we can exercise it , as we did with Liddle, providing we do it in the agreed time frame, we do this all the time so surprised you think otherwise

There is absolutely no way we would have got bugger all for him in the summer.

Ok well i must be wrong then. I ment we would get a tribunal fee, anyway we will have got a good sell on fee and bonus stuff of Posh anyway.

We wouldnt have got a tribunal fee this summer either, as the 3rd year of his contract would have been automatically exercised.

The summer of 2015 if he didnt sign a new deal yes then your talking tribunals.

Come on compo your not getting this at all.

It wouldn't be a tribunal either, we could have kept him until the end of next season contractually

Ok then I must have got it wrong but if this happened to Baldwin I recon the vultures will be circling for James

Now go and boil your own testicles.

Obviously, it's an exaggeration to say all the money used by selling players would go on balancing the books. But the balancing the books thing actually came from a statement the Club made some time ago.

Didn't it used to be the case until recently that if a Club sold a player, then they replaced him with someone who could take over his position? I think the difference between then and now is what people are disgruntled about.

I think its a great choice.

Geographically it gives him wider scope.

Its a step up.

And Peterborough are media darlings, and always will be.

If he does well, the big clubs will come calling, as its an A* club to have on your CV.

Whereas being at a footballing and geographical outpost like Pools is restrictive. Why else would and others have been totally overlooked by our so called big three?

Strange world the football world.

Well Horwood and Hartley left, Duckworth and Burgess have come in.

The club haven't had the opportunity to replace Baldwin yet as the registration window doesn't reopen until Saturday. I suppose time will tell on that one but you'd expect another defender to be brought in.

Ah right and a club captain and an experienced player such as horwood being replaced by a player out of the northern league and a 22 year old on loan from middlesbrough, will equate to the same wages.

Who said that!?

He's been a terrible signing Duckworth mind.