Peter Whittingham, a 27 year old born and raised in Nuneaton. He attended a school that didn't have football as an option in P.E and was noted for being a capable batsman in cricket, but despite being deprived of playing football in his school except for lunch, Peter Whittingham has turned out to be one of the best players to grace the Championship.
In the early stages of career, he was part of an FA Youth Cup winning team in 2002, he was notified by the Aston Villa staff in 2003, when he made his debut against Newcastle United, coming on as a substitute for Gareth Barry. In that season he made 32 appearances for the club, he scored his first ever goal for Aston Villa against Wycombe Wanderers in the League Cup, despite gaining a reputation for being a player who had great attributes for his age, he was then loaned out to Derby County and Burnley to improve his football. He then returned and scored his first league goal for the club against Portsmouth in 2004.
In 2007, things had changed for Peter Whittingham, he had only made four appearances for Villa, On the 11th January 2007, Peter had signed for Cardiff City for a fee understood to have been £350,000. In that time, Cardiff City have never looked back after spending such a small sum for such a quality player. In his first season for the club, he had made 18 appearances and scored four goals. He wrote his name in the team sheet almost every week with only Joe Ledley really offering him competition for his spot, but after a shortage of players, Joe was made to play in left back and Whittingham was on the left side of midfield.
In the next season, it proved to be the rise of Peter, making 33 appearances for Cardiff ending with 9 goals, in that season Cardiff had reached an FA Cup final for there first time since winning the cup in 1927. He ended up being the top goalscorer in the FA Cup for Cardiff that season, with his first coming against Chasetown, Wolverhampton Wanderers and a memorable goal against Middlesbrough where he turned and beat the keeper sweetly, and then also setting up Roger Johnson to set up a semi-final tie at Wembley against Barnsley.
In the 2008-2009 season, after suffering FA Cup final heartbreak against Portsmouth, losing by a goal to nil and having a goal ruled out and numerous penalty claims turned down, Peter had to go ahead again and try and help the Bluebirds go on and look for success, making 26 appearances and scoring four goals, Cardiff had finished 7th on the final day of the season finishing outside the play-offs only by a goal.
After suffering heartbreak on the final day of the season, losing the play-off place just by a goal, Cardiff went ahead again and they started off the season brightly, Whittingham getting on the score sheet in a rampant 4-0 win over Scunthorpe. In this season, the Championship had finally opened up and heard the name of "Peter Whittingham" in this season, which looked one of the hardest line up of teams yet with Middlesbrough, Newcastle and West Brom all coming down, Peter Whittingham was the man grabbing the spotlight, in this season Peter Whittingham scored an incredible twenty five goals as a left sided midfielder, scoring memorable goals for Cardiff, for example a memorable goal against Leicester at The Walkers(now known as King Power Arena) with a cheeky left footed freekick which cannoned in from the post.
Another goal was equalizing from the spot against Leicester in the home leg at the Cardiff City Stadium, when it all looked doom and gloom for the Bluebirds, but having to go off injured and not playing a part in the rest of the game. In the end though, Cardiff City had beaten Leicester City on penalties with Yann Kermorgant's extravagance not paying off and David Marshall saving the crucial penalty to send Cardiff to Wembley in a play-off final against Blackpool.
In that season, Cardiff had been through terrible financial woes with the club having constant tax bills having to be payed and having a transfer embargo placed on them in the January transfer window, leaving Dave Jones' men unable to strengthen and making the team come together as a team to overcome the problems.
Peter was available and ready to go in Cardiff's play-off final which was worth £90m and could have ended Cardiff City's financial troubles but after a well fought first half, Blackpool were crowned play-off Champions after being classed as the underdogs and Cardiff yet again fell at the final hurdle, leaving some fans wondering what was going to happen to the club.In the end, Cardiff had gained Malaysian investment from Vincent Tan and Dato Chan and a new era at Cardiff City had begun. In that season, Whittingham was named in the Championship team of the year.
The 2010-2011 season had started, and Cardiff City had to 'pick themselves up, dust themselves down and get ready again' Dave Jones.
Peter was at the center of a transfer battle, with Nottingham Forest claiming that Whittingham wanted to join the club, Burnley also had a bid turned down for £1.75m, which in my eyes was laughable. In the end, Peter had ended all interest by signing a new contract for two more years, showing pure commitment to the Welsh club. In the 2010-2011 season, Cardiff had one aim and that was to get to the Premier League at the final time of asking and they showed their ambitions by signing on-loan stars like Seyi Olofinjana, Andy Keogh and other names, one to be notified was home-town hero Craig Bellamy who was found out of favour at Manchester City and opted to join the Bluebirds, Craig's move meant that Peter Whittingham was moved to an unfamiliar center midfield role, this restricted Whittingham from improving from last season's goal tally where he had an incredible goal scoring record.
A lot of the time, through the season Peter was made to be a center defensive midfielder letting big utility man Seyi Olofinjana play as an attacking midfielder, this frustrated Cardiff fans and some fans were claiming that Whittingham was terrible in that position and that he was afraid to tackle, but could you blame Whittingham? A player that was scoring freely last year and used to attacking and not defending was made to pull back while a player who was most suited as a defensive midfielder was playing ahead of him? Despite this, he still managed to score 11 goals and was noted for his passing. In this season, Whittingham had missed numerous penalties and a lot of people were calling for the Whittingham of the 2009-2010 season to return. I watched Peter throughout the home matches of the season and a few away games, I always had faith in him, I know his ability of what he can do. As the season drew to a close, Peter had scored a goal that sent Preston North End down and revived their automatic promotion hopes. The season ended and Cardiff City yet again failed at the final hurdle, losing 3-0 at home to Reading, who went on to lose 4-2 to Cardiff's bitterest rivals Swansea.
On the 30th May 2011, Dave Jones was sacked and a few weeks later Malky Mackay was made manager of the club, Malky had made his feelings known instantly saying that he wanted to keep Whittingham after interest from Ipswich. He's currently made 12 appearances for the Bluebirds this season, grabbing two goals. On the 26th August 2011, an article was posted on the Cardiff City website that Peter had signed a contract extension that meant he was contracted to the club till 2014. He's been comforted by Malky, sort of a favourite player really as Whitts has gone to grown on Malky and Malky rates him highly. In the early stages of this season, Whittingham has been made a center midfielder for the Bluebirds but a more freedom role being able to go forward.
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