Played for Both: Former Sunderland Captain and Wigan Midfielder Lee Cattermole

We take a look at the career of former captain and fans favourite Lee Cattermole.

There is no shortage of options when it comes to players who played for both Sunderland and this weekend’s opponents Wigan, in fact Wigan currently have five former Blacks Cats on their books. 

The subject of todays ‘Played for Both’ spent an impressive 10 years at the club. He became a fan favourite, leader, captain and role model - he is of course, Lee Barry Cattermole.

It may seem strange putting Cattermole and role model in the same sentence, especially given his disciplinary record early on in his career, but this is exactly how former Sunderland assistant manager Kit Symons describe Cattermole when a guest on the What the Falk Podcast in April 2020 (it’s definitely worth a listen).

“He [Honeyman] massively looked up to Catts and they used to call them Catts and Kitten. He was such a mini-Catts.” Symons said as he described how future Sunderland captain George Honeyman looked up to Cattermole. He went on further to say “Me and Chris [Coleman] were obviously pleased with that because he was looking up to a real role model; a senior pro and one of the good guys.”

Born and raised in Teesside, Cattermole’s career started in the Middlesbrough youth academy where he made his debut for the first team at the age of 17, playing the full 90 minutes in the Tyne-Tees derby on 2 January 2006 and producing a Man of the Match winning performance that earned the praise of then Middlesbrough boss Steve McClaren, who said after the match: "When we needed people to stand up and be counted it took a 17-year-old to bring everyone together."

Cattermole had his first taste of captaincy when he became the youngest-ever skipper for Middlesbrough at the age of 18 years and 47 days, captaining the team on 7 May 2006 against Fulham. In this match Cattermole showed great maturity and sportsmanship when without being asked passed the armband to another former Sunderland player Colin Cooper who was playing his last match before retirement.

At the end of the season Cattermole left Middlesbrough in a deal worth £3.5 million in July 2008, signing a three-year deal with this weekend’s opponents Wigan.

An impressive first season at Wigan brought plenty of interest from other clubs, and on 12 August 2009 Sunderland won the race for his signature, signing him on a four-year deal for a fee of £6 million and reuniting him with former manager Steve Bruce.

He made his debut in a Man of the Match performance during a 1-0 win over Bolton and a string of good performances followed which started to make him a favourite among fans. However, an injury hit debut season which included a twelve-week spell on the side lines meant Cattermole only managed 22 games in all competitions.

The following season Cattermole was handed the captains armband, and in the first game of the season was sent off for a second bookable offence against Birmingham City. Cattermole's hard tackling approach along with his disciplinary record led to questions about his suitability for the captain role, and while Bruce also agreed his disciplinary record needed to improve he continued to give his backing for Catts to keep the armband.

Despite the questions around his disciplinary record Cattermole remained captain for the following season, though two yellow cards in the first two games of the season lead to him falling out of favour and not starting another game for several months. Questions were raised around whether or not he would remain as skipper when Bruce was replaced by Martin O'Neil, even more so when reports emerged about his arrest for allegedly damaging cars with teammate Nicklas Bendtner.

O'Neil kept faith though and this paid off with some excellent performances from Cattermole that help towards that season's survival in the Premier League, including arguably one of Cattermole's best performances in a 1-0 New Year's Day win over Manchester City.

However, once again Cattermole's disciplinary record led to his role as captain being up for discussion as by the end of the 2011-12 season across 73 games in all competitions he had amassed 32 yellow cards and four reds. Despite this he remained captain for yet another season.

He eventually lost the captaincy to John O'Shea in the 2013-14 season. This was also the season he scored his first goal for club in a 5-1 loss to Tottenham.

Goals were not a big part of Cattermole's game but when he did score it was usually a good one. He had to wait 'til the next season to get his second goal for the club - a goal that he himself described as 'the best goal he has ever scored' in a 2-2 draw at West Brom.

In total Cattermole scored 10 goals across his 258 appearances for the club, with his biggest single season total being an impressive 7 goals in 29 league games during the 2018-19 season. Not bad for a defensive midfielder.

That season was to be his last for the club and on 22 August 2019 and after ten years at Sunderland AFC, he signed a season long deal for VVV-Venlo, but due to the Covid pandemic cutting the season short he only made 11 appearances for the club. He subsequently announced his retirement from playing professional football.

Cattermole is back in football, having recently re-joined Middlesbrough as their U18 head coach and has recently been assisting interim head coach Leo Percovich since the sacking of Chris Wilder and has even emerged as a favourite for the permanent head coach role.

ALSO READ: Rated: How well did Wigan Athletic's large contingent of ex-Black Cats do at Sunderland?

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