Exclusive:Lee Cattermole draws on 'incredible' former Sunderland and Middlesbrough managers after landing Gateshead role
Former Sunderland and Middlesbrough midfielder Lee Cattermole will start his managerial career with National League club Gateshead.
Former Sunderland and Middlesbrough captain Lee Cattermole is ready to utilise his experience of working under several experienced managers as he begins to forge his own career in the dugout.
It was former England head coach Steve McClaren that handed Cattermole his debut as a player at the age of 17 when he started for Boro in a Tyne-Tees derby clash with Newcastle United in January 2006. McClaren then helped the academy product create club history when he became Boro’s youngest ever captain as he wore the armband for a defeat at Premier League rivals Fulham on the final day of the 2005/06 season. Cattermole then worked under a future Three Lions manager when Gareth Southgate was named as McClaren’s successor before a move to Wigan Athletic saw the midfielder experience life working under Steve Bruce.
Cattermole then returned to the North East when he reunited with Bruce at Sunderland after they had agreed a £6m deal with the Latics and that kickstarted a decade-long stay at the Stadium of Light as the Teessider worked under several managers with varying levels of success. There were established and experienced bosses such as Martin O’Neill, Sam Allardyce, David Moyes and Dick Advocaat and managers that arrived on Wearside looking to enhance promising reputations such as Paolo Di Canio and Gus Poyet.
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For Cattermole, the aim will be to put his own stamp on the squad he inherited from former Newcastle United goalkeeper Rob Elliot after he put pen-to-paper on a two-year deal at the International Stadium. However, the former Sunderland stalwart admitted he will draw on the experience he received working under a plethora of managers throughout his playing career.
‘An incredible manager’
“I saw Dick Advocaat in tears at the World Cup and he’s an incredible manager,” he told The Echo when asked which managers had influenced him ahead of his own career in the dugout kicking off at Gateshead. “They’ve all had an impression on me, everyone of them. I never made excuses as a player. I never said a manager doesn’t suit me. I always adapted my game and found a way into the team. If you look at my career, I started a lot of games, I didn’t start from the bench and I always found a way to learn what the manager wanted and tried to give him that. I always try to look for the best in people and going back to the start, Steve McClaren, as an organiser, coaching, organising, he was unbelievable.
“Steve Bruce, he was a man manager. Sam Allardyce, he was totally different, all about numbers and where to get to on the pitch. Gus Poyet, he was incredible. It was a totally different side of the game, which is probably a bit more where the game is now. I’ve loved working under so many managers and coaches and they all shape you in some way, shape or form - but ultimately it’s how they carry themselves because the players are always watching.”
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