Championship news: Ex-Sunderland, Middlesbrough Stoke City and Huddersfield Town man joins Cardiff City

In 2004, Whitehead signed for Sunderland on a free transfer, with the club in the Championship at the time, on a three-year contract with the club. However, Sunderland were ordered to pay £150,000 to Oxford at an FA tribunal to compensate for his development.

Oxford would also receive 25% of any fee should Sunderland sell Whitehead. Whitehead was later to become club captain under former boss Roy Keane.

That fee turned out to be somewhere in the region of £3million to £5million after the midfielder joined Stoke City back in 2009 after making 200 appearances for Sunderland in all competitions over five seasons, winning promotion to the Premier League on two occasions.

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Following four seasons at Stoke City, Whitehead joined Middlesbrough and then Huddersfield Town before retiring during the 2017-18 season and was recently on the coaching staff at Besiktas, one of Turkey’s biggest clubs, before joining Cardiff City.

Speaking after the game, interim manager Mark Huson confirmed: "We've brought in Dean Whitehead. He's a very good coach and a very good human being.

"I didn't want to rush into a decision. Dean has a lot to add to our coaching unit."

Sunderland defeated Huddersfield Town at the John Smith’s Stadium on Wednesday night whilst Cardiff City lost to Watford in Wales after taking the lead. The Black Cats and the Bluebirds are due to face each other in the Championship at the Stadium of Light this Saturday.

“Obviously we’re disappointed to concede the goals that we did,” Hudson said after the Watford defeat. “For all their individual quality the most disappointing thing is we conceded from two corners. It is pleasing that we created the chances that we did and put them under pressure.

“They had a good spell from the first half, but you see the second half that we can be brave, we can take it to teams, we can take it to top teams. They’ve got individual quality, but they didn’t hurt us from that. They hurt us from our own mistakes.”