Henk ten Cate

Henk ten Cate

Personal information
Date of birth	9 December 1954 (1954-12-09)
Place of birth	Amsterdam, Netherlands
Playing position	Left winger
Club information
Current club	Shandong Luneng
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1979–1985	Go Ahead Eagles	132	(21)
1980	→ Edmonton Drillers (loan)	21	(5)
1981–1982	→ Telstar (loan)	30	(7)
1985–1986	SC Heracles	19	(1)
Total		202	(34)
Teams managed
1990	Go Ahead Eagles
1990–1992	SC Heracles
1992–1993	vv Rheden
1993–1995	Go Ahead Eagles
1995–1997	Sparta Rotterdam
1997–1998	Vitesse
1998–1999	KFC Uerdingen 05
1999–2000	MTK Hungária FC
2000–2003	NAC Breda
2003–2006	Barcelona (assistant)
2006–2007	Ajax
2007–2008	Chelsea (assistant)
2008–2009	Panathinaikos
2009	Al-Ahli Dubai
2010–2011	Umm Salal
2012–	Shandong Luneng
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

Ten Cate with Chelsea.

Henk ten Cate (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈɦɛŋk tən ˈkaːtə]) (born 9 December 1954 in Amsterdam, Noord-Holland) is a Dutch football manager and a former professional player.

In the 2005–06 season, he was the assistant of Frank Rijkaard at Barcelona that guided the team to a Champions League Trophy and La Liga title. He then served as manager of Ajax until October 2007, when he was released by mutual consent, allowing him to begin talks with Chelsea. Ten Cate joined the London club on 11 October 2007, as assistant manager but was sacked on 29 May 2008 just 5 days after the departure of manager Avram Grant.

Biography

Playing career

Henk ten Cate started his football career at amateur side FC Rheden before signing his first professional contract at Go Ahead Eagles. He made his Eredivisie debut in the 1979–80 season and earned himself 27 appearances throughout the season in which he scored 4 goals. These performances earned him a transfer to NASL side Edmonton Drillers in Canada.

After the North American season he returned to Go Ahead Eagles and continued his Eredivisie campaign. He became however unsure of his position and was sent on loan to Eerste Divisie side Telstar where he was one of their key players. After the season at Telstar he returned to Deventer and became a first team regular for Go Ahead Eagles again for three more seasons. In 1985 he switched to SC Heracles where he ended his professional career as a player.

Managerial career

After his playing career Ten Cate became assistant manager of Fritz Korbach at Go Ahead Eagles, playing in the Eerste Divisie. When Korbach moved to SC Heerenveen in February 1990 Ten Cate took over as a manager. He managed to win period title, which earned an Eerste Divisie side a place in the promotion play-offs at the end of the season. In these play-offs Go Ahead Eagles placed equal with Korbach's SC Heerenveen, but Heerenveen promoted to the Eredivisie on goal difference.

Ten Cate left Go Ahead Eagles and returned to one of the other teams he was active at during his playing career, SC Heracles where he became the assistant of manager Henk van Brussel. When Van Brussel was unable to finish the season due to health problems in November 1990 Ten Cate became the first team manager and led SC Heracles until 1992, when he was told his contract was no longer extended. He moved to the club where his football career started, amateur side FC Rheden and managed them for one year.

In 1993 Go Ahead Eagles appointed Ten Cate yet again as their manager, this time to replace Jan Versleijen who left the club to manage De Graafschap. In his first year he did well, but when Go Ahead Eagles was at the bottom of the Eerste Divisie during the winter break of the 1994–95 season he was fired. Eredivisie side Sparta Rotterdam offered him a contract and he led the team to a sixth position in the Eredivisie in 1996, they also reached the final of the KNVB Cup that year, which was lost to PSV Eindhoven 5–2.

In the 1997–98 winter break Ten Cate switched to manage Vitesse, which he led to their best Eredivisie ranking in their history, a third position with records in both the number of points won as the number of scored goals. After a disappointing start in the following season he left Vitesse and led KFC Uerdingen 05 until March 1999 without success. In the 1999–00 season he managed Hungarian side MTK Hungária FC to win the Hungarian Cup and a runners-up place in the PNB League. He returned to the Netherlands and became manager of NAC Breda which he led until 2003 earning them a spot in the UEFA Cup for the 2003–04 season.

He joined Frank Rijkaard at FC Barcelona and became his assistant manager. Together they managed Barça to a Champions League Trophy and two La Liga titles. In 2006 he replaced Danny Blind as manager at Ajax, where he won the Johan Cruijff-schaal in 2006 and 2007 and the KNVB Cup in 2007. Ajax finished equal on points with PSV Eindhoven in the Eredivisie in 2006, only to be denied the championship by a single goal in goal difference.

In early October 2007, Ten Cate was strongly linked to taking over as assistant manager to Avram Grant at Chelsea. On 8 October 2007 Ajax announced on their website to have reached an agreement with Chelsea about Ten Cate's immediate transfer to the London side, noting also the deal was still to be finalized. Ten Cate officially joined Chelsea on 11 October 2007 as assistant first team coach. He was appointed assistant manager alongside club and fan favourite Steve Clarke.

Following the 2008 UEFA Champions League Final, Ten Cate expressed his disappointment with Didier Drogba for his sending-off (if Drogba had not been sent off, he would have taken the fifth penalty). Drogba's expulsion led to John Terry taking Chelsea's fifth penalty, which he failed to convert as he slipped on the rain-soaked turf. Had he scored, Chelsea would have secured their first Champions League Title.

Ten Cate was sacked from his role at Chelsea on 29 May 2008, two days after being told the sacking of Avram Grant would not affect his position.

On 13 June 2008, Ten Cate signed a two-year deal with a Greek Superleague team, Panathinaikos FC. Ten Cate gave the following statement on his appointment:

"Panathinaikos' history, ambition and attitude towards football in general match those of the greatest football clubs in Europe. "I've been used to working at the highest level and that's why I consider this a great challenge."

Ten Cate's Panathinaikos managed to qualify to the "16" Phase of UEFA Champions' League in 2008–2009 season,where Panathinaikos was eliminated by Villarreal CF. In the Greek Superleague, Panathinaikos has suffered many bad referees decisions who was the reason for finishing 3rd in the league. However, they won the Europe Cups Play Offs, winning the second seed for the next year's Champions League Play offs. In his first year to the club, Ten Cate built Panathinaikos to play an attacking style of play based on possession, direct game, and the use of full backs in 4–2–3–1 and 4–3–2–1 formations, and finally they had the most goals in the league.

The board acknowledge his great job, and kept him in his position for a second year, in which the club managed to achieve its best start in the League since 1996, with 9 wins and 2 draws in 11 matches. Meanwhile this great run, journalists influenced by the old board of the club, didn't want the club to grow, and they continually criticized him for having bad attitude to some players, influencing the fans to criticize him too, beside the great run to the league and the attractive football, and after the first bad result against rivals Olympiakos, the board decided to fire him. However the club, having as a base his great job making Panathinaikos the most well drilled club in Greece both physically and tactical, Panathinaikos won a few months later the Championship after 6 years.

On 6 February 2010 it was announced that Ten Cate signed a 6 month contract with the UAE champions Al-Ahli Club (Dubai) and only one month later the former manager of Panathinaikos quits Al-Ahli, after the defeat against Al-Sadd with 5–0.

In April 2010 Umm Salal hired the Dutch coach as a replacement of Gerard Gili. Henk ten Cate worked as a manager of Umm Salal until 07/02/2011

In 5 January 2012, Henk ten Cate became the Manager of Shandong Luneng Taishan F.C. in China

Statistics

Season	Club	Competition	Apps	Goals
1979/80	Go Ahead Eagles	Eredivisie	27	4
1980	Edmonton Drillers	North American Soccer League	21	5
1980/81	Go Ahead Eagles	Eredivisie	19	3
1981/82	Go Ahead Eagles	Eredivisie	1	0
1981/82	Telstar	Eerste Divisie	30	7
1982/83	Go Ahead Eagles	Eredivisie	31	10
1983/84	Go Ahead Eagles	Eredivisie	24	2
1984/85	Go Ahead Eagles	Eredivisie	30	2
1985/86	SC Heracles	Eredivisie	19	1
Total			202	34

Honours

As manager

With MTK Budapest

• Hungarian Cup: 1999–2000

With AFC Ajax

• KNVB Cup: 2005–06, 2006–07
• Johan Cruijff Shield: 2006–07

External links

• Goal.com profile