On this day in 2007, Sunderland signed Dickson Etuhu upon their promotion to the Premier League under Roy Keane.
As a young lad Etuhu grew up in Northern Nigeria, but moved to London aged seven as his family sought treatment for his sister, who was diagnosed with cancer.
Sadly, his sister passed away. But his mother insisted their family stayed in England, which is where Etuhu was introduced to football. Dickson came though Manchester City’s academy, before signing professionally in 2000. He couldn’t make much of an impact though, playing just 12 times for the senior side.
He caught the eye of Preston manager and all-round football genius David Moyes at Preston, who paid £300,000 for the Nigerian’s services. He made his debut for the club in a 1-0 win over Bradford, and scored his first goal just a week later as North End beat Sheffield Wednesday 4-2.
Etuhu quickly became a regular in the side, but Preston missed out on the play-off spots after losing Moyes to Everton in March.
Dickson made almost 200 appearances for the Lilywhites during his time at Deepdale, although his game time was limited towards the end. He joined Norwich City on loan, and strangely played his first game on loan against Preston! This was because the club had forgotten to put a clause in his contract saying he couldn’t play against them.
During the match, Etuhu essentially confirmed the end of his Preston career with a leg-breaking tackle on Preston midfielder Adam Nowland.
In January Dickson joined Norwich permanently for around £450,000. It was in East Anglia where he really gained a reputation for being an imposing midfielder, playing over 70 games for the Canaries. He played for Norwich in the Championship for two years before attracting the attention of Roy Keane’s newly-promoted Sunderland.
We paid a rumoured £1.5 million for Etuhu, who was still only 25. Upon completion of the deal, Keano said: "I’m very pleased that Dickson has signed. He will add competition to our squad and give us a real physical presence. He’s a big, strong player who can also get a goal. We are definitely heading in the right direction as far as getting the players we want to the football club. The signing of Dickson creates competition and a club like Sunderland needs that. We all talk about the big four having competition for places, I feel every club should have it and that’s what I’m trying to do here."
He played just 20 times on Wearside -it would have been more if not for a knee injury which effectively ended his first season, needing surgery.
He was never able to break back into the side, and signed for Fulham in August 2008 for the same fee we paid for him. He was a key figure in Roy Hodgson’s side, playing his part in their famous 2009/10 Europa League cup run. It is testament to his great engine and undoubted work rate that he played all 120 minutes of the final, with his ability to break up the play complimenting Danny Murphy's on-the-ball quality really well.
Perhaps we were too quick to dismiss Etuhu, and next to players who weren’t Dean Whitehead he may have had a brighter future on Wearside. One of his most memorable moments as a Sunderland player was in the 2007/8 derby against the Mags, where he came face to face with Joey Barton. The thug had taken Dickson out with a groin-level studs-up tackle for which he inexplicably avoided punishment.
