Halford, who has completed a season-long loan from Sunderland, suffered possibly the lowest point of his career on Wearside when he was dismissed 61 minutes into a Carling Cup defeat by Kevin Blackwell's Luton Town.

Observers in the North-east suggest it was the moment when Roy Keane first expressed doubts about the 23-year-old's long-term future at the Stadium of Light and, true enough, Halford was later dispatched to Charlton.

And it was a spring afternoon seven months on at Bramall Lane, not that desperately disappointing evening last year in Bedfordshire, which persuaded Blackwell, by now manager of the Blades, to add Halford's name to his list of possible acquisitions.

The former Colchester and Reading defender had shown the courage required to recover his poise and produce a performance against United which confirmed talk of his demise was horribly premature.

And Blackwell, who had returned to South Yorkshire just two weeks earlier, witnessed it first hand.

"To be fair, Greg was one of five or six Sunderland lads who could have walked during that game at Kenilworth Road," he reflected. "He was the unlucky one who copped it.

"We absolutely battered them and if the referee hadn't shown as much leniency there's no way he would have been the only one. But that had no bearing on my view of him.

"What did have is the fact that he's a very, very good player.

"He showed that when they (Charlton) came here towards the end of last season."

So what will Sun Jihai, who also joined United earlier this week, and Halford bring to Blackwell's squad?

Certainly in the latter's case it appears to be versatility and a fresh attacking dimension.

"Greg's a good defender who can also go forward and that's what I want next season, especially at Bramall Lane," Blackwell said. "People who push on and take the fight to the opposition.

"He's also dangerous from dead-ball situations - he's got a real thud with that right foot - and he's already showed us what he can do with that long throw of his when he landed the ball in the box for Charlton against us in March and we got undone.

"We've not had that since Leigh Bromby left and it's an important weapon.

"I like players who can play in a variety of different positions too because it gives you more flexibility without packing your squad with players who aren't often going to get used."

That should dispel fears that Sun Jihai's arrival has more to do with United's interests in China - where they own Super League outfit Chengdu Blades - than their ambitions in domestic competition.

"He's not a token signing at all," Blackwell added.

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