[6][8] Under the management of Viv Anderson and Danny Wilson, Eaden became a regular in the side and contributed to their promotion to the Premiership,[6][8] but after Barnsley would not meet his wage demands when his contract was due to expire in 2000, he left.
A proposed move to Bolton Wanderers in late 1999 did not materialise,[9] and Eaden joined First Division club Birmingham City in July 2000 on a free transfer under the Bosman ruling.
On 31 August 2006, Eaden joined League Two side Lincoln City on loan, initially for a month,[15][16] which was later extended to the maximum 93-day total.
[25] On 22 March 2011, Eaden joined the coaching staff of Rotherham United on a contract until the end of the season, working under his one-time Barnsley teammate Andy Liddell.
[30] During the 2012–13 season, Eaden worked alongside Steve Beaglehole for Leicester City under-21s as a coach, and was named on the bench for a game against Huddersfield Town as one of three over-aged players.
[31][32] He left in 2016 to join Rotherham United as assistant manager to Neil Redfearn, and signed a contract until the end of the 2017–18 season.
Before their next match, Rotherham appointed Neil Warnock as manager; Eaden was kept on the staff as first-team coach, but had little input to the first team.
[36] He also briefly acted as first-team coach under Mark Venus's caretaker managership, before leaving in September 2017 to become Jack Lester's assistant manager at Chesterfield.