Ten Cate, as befits a Dutch coach, is an advocate of attacking football and once said: “Nearly everybody played 4-3-3 when I started out so I was pretty much raised in that offensive system and thinking. I have always played [and coached] at clubs that played attractive football and did not depend on brute force.”The Dutchman is on his way to join Chelsea as an assistant coach despite having a torrid time at Ajax at the moment. Fan frustration boiled over during Sunday’s 2-2 draw at Sparta Rotterdam when supporters aimed abuse at Ten Cate, the club chairman John Jaakke and the defender Jurgen Colin. Regular chants of “Henkie, get lost and take Jaakke and Colin with you” rang around the away end as Ajax struggled to gain a point in the league game.The Ajax supporters’ frustration, however, does not mean that Chelsea are making a mistake. At Barcelona, under Frank Rijkaard, he was an ideal No2, improving players in training and fine-tuning their attacking instincts. He also allowed Rijkaard to keep his “good guy” image with the players. It was often Ten Cate who had to tell players that they were dropped or that they were not being offered a new contract. At half-time it was Ten Cate who ranted or raved if Baré° were behind.The 52-year-old has also had success as a first-team coach in what can only be described as a remarkable and nomadic career. He rarely rose above the average during a playing CV which saw him represent Vitesse, Go Ahead Eagles, Edmonton Drillers, Telstar and Heracles, but he has a reputation as a coach who drastically improves players and works miracles with smaller teams.After gaining experience with Go Ahead Eagles, SC Heracles and the amateur club Rheden, he led Sparta Rotterdam to sixth place in the Eredivisie and also took them to the Dutch cup final, where they lost 5-2 to PSV Eindhoven. Later, at Vitesse, he surprised everyone by finishing third in the league - their highest ever position.He has coached in Hungary and Germany as well, and managed to win the Hungarian Cup with MTK Hungaria despite living in a small flat without his family and the fact that he was often racially abused (he was born in Amsterdam to a Surinamese mother).More success followed back in the Netherlands with NAC Breda - whom he qualified for the Uefa Cup for the first time ever and then, of course, at Barcelona as Rijkaard’s assistant.There is, however, always the danger that his temper will boil over. He had to leave Vitesse after television cameras caught him completely losing the plot following a Uefa Cup game against Sporting Braga. He had to be calmed down by the president, Karel Aalbers, and the technical director, Leo Beenhakker, and that high-profile incident contributed to his departure for KFC Uerdingen in Germany.He is not afraid to make unpopular decisions and Jan Luijkx, a backroom staff member at NAC Breda, said after being fired by Ten Cate: “Ten Cate manages to kick up a row every day, and not only with me. He treats people with contempt and always blames someone else.”At Barcelona, however, he prospered. Ten Cate and Rijkaard both have Surinam roots and knew each other from growing up in Amsterdam. Rijkaard was always going to be the club’s face towards the outside world because of his past as a player but Ten Cate has often been credited as the architect of the successful team that won the Champions League in 2006.The lure of coaching Ajax back in Amsterdam, however, proved too difficult to resist after that Champions League triumph in Paris against Arsenal but his tenure there has been disappointing, especially in Europe. He has failed to reach the Champions League group stages in two consecutive seasons, falling to FC Copenhagen and Slavia Prague in the third qualifying round, and his misery was completed last week when Ajax were also eliminated from the Uefa Cup against Dynamo Zagreb.The coach was not helped by Ajax’s decision to sell Wesley Sneijder to Real Madrid and Ryan Babel to Liverpool in the summer but the problems at the club have reinforced the view that he is an extremely good No2 but perhaps not suited to lead a big club. In London he will arrive in an ideal position: he can work with the players on the training pitch and improve the team’s attacking play, instilling a pattern which will see Chelsea score far more goals than they have so far this season.In the Netherlands he is not seen as a genius such as Guus Hiddink or Johan Cruyff, partly because he did not have a good playing career. He is an emotional character who seems to be better suited away from the limelight than in it. Daan Schippers is deputy editor at the Dutch football magazine ElfRoad to the BridgeFebruary 1990Given his first coaching job at Go Ahead Eagles, where he also playedMay 1995Reaches Dutch Cup final with Sparta Rotterdam but loses 5-2 to PSVMay 1998Finishes third in Dutch league with Vitesse, their highest position everMay 2000Wins his first trophy by leading MTK Hungaria to the Hungarian CupMay 2003Takes NAC Breda into the Uefa Cup for the first time in the club’s historyMay 2006Wins the Spanish league title and the Champions League as Barcelona assistant coach with Ronaldinho and co beating Arsenal 2-1 in the final in Paris
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