Thomas Stephen Caton (6 October 1962 – 30 April 1993) was an English

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a centre half for

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

Oxford United Oxford United Football Club is a professional football club in the city of Oxford, England. The team plays in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The chairman is Grant Ferguson, the manager is Karl Robinson and th ...

and

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in C ...

. Caton captained both Manchester City and Oxford United and was named as City's Player of the Year in 1982. He made 14 appearances for the England under-21 team.

Career

Manchester City

Born in

Kirkby Kirkby ( ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley, Merseyside, England. The town, historically in Lancashire, has a size of is north of Huyton and north-east of Liverpool. The population in 2016 was 41,495 making it the largest ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

, Caton was a centre half who played for and captained England schoolboys before signing for

as an apprentice in 1978. He was a member of the City team that reached and lost in the

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

and 1980 FA Youth Cup finals. Caton made his senior debut for City on 18 August 1979 aged 16, and soon became a regular in the City side, playing in the

1981 FA Cup Final The 1981 FA Cup Final was the 100th final of the FA Cup, and was contested by Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City. The original match took place on Saturday 9 May 1981 at Wembley, and finished 1–1 after extra-time. Tommy Hutchison opened th ...

against

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

when still only 18 years old. When

Tommy Hutchison Thomas Hutchison (born 22 September 1947) is a Scottish former footballer who played as a midfielder. He made over 1,100 appearances, including 314 in the Football League alone for Coventry City, and more than 160 apiece in the competition f ...

put City in the lead it looked as though Caton was on his way to collect a winner's medal, but Tottenham levelled as a result of Hutchison's own goal, a replay was forced and City lost it 3–2. He reached 100 First Division games on 6 March 1982; at the age of 19 years and 5 months he was the youngest player in

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

history to achieve this feat. He was also named City's Player of the Year for 1981–82. Caton scored eight goals during his spell at Maine Road, the first one coming in a 1–1 draw at

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

on 13 March 1982, and he scored twice against

on 4 December 1982. He scored his last goal for City in a 3–1 win against Shrewsbury Town at Gay Meadow on 5 November 1983. A season after he came close to collecting an FA Cup winner's medal, Caton was looking like a good bet for a

Football League First Division The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First ...

title winner's medal as City went top of the league just after Christmas in 1981, but a dismal second half of the season meant they finished mid table and were left without even a

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

place. The lacklustre form continued into the 1982–83 season, at the end of which City were beaten 1–0 at home on the final day of the season by Luton Town, meaning that City were relegated and Luton stayed up. Caton was unwilling to remain at City now they were a Second Division club, and handed in a transfer request, but began the 1983–84 season still playing for the Citizens and he remained there until December 1983 when he made the move to Arsenal for £500,000.

Arsenal

Caton made his Arsenal debut against

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pla ...

on 4 December. However, after playing as a first team regular under the management of Don Howe in his first two years at Arsenal as David O'Leary's partner, he lost his place to

Martin Keown Martin Raymond Keown (; born 24 July 1966) is an English football pundit and former professional footballer who played as a defender from 1984 to 2005, notably in the Premier League for Arsenal, where he made over 400 appearances for the club a ...

and the young Tony Adams during the 1985–86 season, at the end of which Howe was replaced by George Graham. By February 1987, Caton had scored three goals in 95 appearances for Arsenal, but had not played first-team football in almost a year.

Oxford United

In February 1987, Caton was sold to

for £160,000. He was named club captain soon after his arrival and helped them avoid relegation from the First Division during his opening months at the Manor Ground. He also missed out on a chance of silverware when Oxford were knocked out in the semifinals of the 1987–88 League Cup.

Charlton Athletic

He remained at Oxford until 18 November 1988, when he was sold to

for £100,000 in order to play in the First Division again. Caton stayed with Charlton after their relegation in 1990, but was injured the following January and never played first team football again. He finally announced his retirement in March 1993 having failed to make a full recovery. He had played 57 league games for Charlton, scoring five goals.

Personal life

Caton was born in

. He was married to Gill, and had three children. His son

Andy Andy may refer to: People *Andy (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters *Horace Andy (born 1951), Jamaican roots reggae songwriter and singer born Horace Hinds *Katja Andy (1907–2013), German-American pianist and piano ...

also played League football. At the age of 30, a month after he announced his retirement, Caton suddenly died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

at home in

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

Honours

Club

Manchester City *

FA Youth Cup The Football Association Youth Challenge Cup is an English football competition run by The Football Association for under-18 sides. Only those players between the age of 15 and 18 on 31 August of the current season are eligible to take part. It ...

runner-up: 1978–79, 1979–80 *

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

runner-up: 1980–81

Individual

*Manchester City Player of the Year: 1982

References

External links

*
Charlton Athletic
at Sporting Heroes {{DEFAULTSORT:Caton, Tommy 1962 births 1993 deaths People from Kirkby English footballers Association football central defenders England schools international footballers England youth international footballers England under-21 international footballers Manchester City F.C. players Arsenal F.C. players Oxford United F.C. players Charlton Athletic F.C. players English Football League players FA Cup Final players