Former Sunderland midfielder Dean Whitehead has joined Cardiff City as first team coach ahead of the Bluebirds visit to the Stadium of Light. Whitehead joins up with Cardiff interim boss and his former Huddersfield Town teammate Mark Hudson in the Welsh capital.
Whitehead amassed 200 appearances and won two Championship titles during his five seasons with the Black Cats. He went onto spend four years in the Premier League at Stoke City, before concluding his career with spells at Middlesbrough and Huddersfield Town respectively.
It was at Huddersfield that Whitehead launched his coaching career. He first took up a coaching role as part of David Wagner's first team technical staff and also served as Huddersfield's U17s manager.
He then coached at Shrewsbury Town and Port Vale respectively, helping the latter earn promotion to League One under manager Darrell Clarke. Whitehead joined Besiktas in July but left the club when Valerien Ismael was sacked three months later.
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"Yes it's all done. He comes in as first team coach," Hudson confirmed in his pre-match press conference. "I know Dean really well, I played with Dean, I've coached with Dean, we worked together previously.
"He has not long come out of a job with Besiktas, which again shows the level of him as a coach. [He is] highly regarded over there, and highly thought of, and they were, I think four points off top.
"So he comes in, he's been in since Thursday morning so he's met everyone. He's met the players, and the staff, and they're already working away together in the office. He's another good character to add to an already really good group."
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