In the 2005–06 season, he was assistant to Frank Rijkaard at Barcelona when the team won the UEFA Champions League and La Liga titles.

Ten Cate started his football career at amateur side FC Rheden before signing his first professional contract at Go Ahead Eagles.

He managed to lead them to a play-off place at the end of the season, but Heerenveen were 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, 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 Heracles until 1992, when he was told his contract would not be extended.

He moved to the club where his football career started, amateur side FC Rheden, and managed them for one year.

On 8 October 2007, Ajax announced on their website that they had reached an agreement with Chelsea about Ten Cate's immediate move to the London side, noting also that the deal was still to be finalized.

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.

The Panathinaikos board kept Ten Cate in his position for a second year, in which the club managed to achieve its best start in the league since 1996, with nine wins and two draws in eleven matches.

[8] However, as Shandong Luneng Taishan spent most of the season struggling at the edge of relegation, ten Cate resigned on 6 September.

[9] On 4 April 2013, he shortly replaced the sacked Michel Vonk as manager of Sparta Rotterdam on a contract running until the end of the season.

[10] He returned to the Middle East in December 2015 after signing for UAE club Al Jazira,[11] with whom he won the domestic league title in his second (and first full) season.