Rob Edwards has agreed a three-and-a-half-year deal to become the head coach of Wolverhampton Wanderers, despite only joining Championship club Middlesbrough in June.
Edwards has only taken charge of 16 games at Boro and spoken bravely on creating a “family”.
The family’s father has only gone and ditched them before Christmas.
Middlesbrough will reportedly receive compensation in the region of £3-4m, but as a club 2nd in the Championship, they’ll now have to search for a new manager to continue the promotion battle that Edwards mounted.
Boro took a gamble on the 42-year-old when his stock was low – are their fans right to feel aggrieved at his departure? Will he even be able to succeed at Wolves and prove doubters wrong?
Has Edwards Left For the Premier League or Wolves?
Edwards made over a century of appearances for Wolves as a player after joining the club as a 21-year-old.
He also learnt his trade as a coach at Molineux, serving as head coach for various academy sides, before even taking charge of two games as first team interim manager in 2006.
He has family in the Midlands, having grown up close. It is home to him.
Naturally, becoming head coach of Wolverhampton Wanderers is a dream come true for the 42-year-old, but Middlesbrough fans are right to feel aggrieved.
Edwards spoke extremely highly of the club just two months ago.
In September, Edwards hit back at criticism over a Boro player, saying to the fans who did so, “We are a family.”
A month earlier, Edwards passionately spoke on the club in an interview with BBC Tees.
“I feel like the luckiest man in the world to be representing Middlesbrough Football Club,” he said. Uttering such big words is very dangerous, when he has left the club at the first, albeit significant to him, offer.
But this is not uncommon in football, to promise the Earth in order to get fans onside.
It may be that the only job Edwards would have left Boro for is the Wolves job, especially considering an argument could be made that Boro have a better chance of being in the Premier League next season than Wolves.
A New Hero In Edwards’ Absence
Middlesbrough cancelled their pre-match press conference with Rob Edwards just a day prior to kick-off ahead of their game against Birmingham.
Edwards also did not take the last training session before the game, disruptive for the team.
Middlesbrough said in a club statement that they were “disappointed” that Edwards expressed his interest in the Wolves job despite only joining the club in June.
Assistant manager Adi Viveash took charge of managerial duties after Boro granted permission for manager Edwards.
Viveash described taking charge in the absence of Rob Edwards as “a bit of a rollercoaster.”
The team ended up winning the game, where Viveash said: “Today was about the players and the fans, and they dovetailed together, they suffered together, and we’ve come out on the right side of an important victory.
“The positives were the resilience, the grit, and the fight we showed.
“It’s not my first rodeo; I’ve been in the game a long time. We were asked by the club to prepare everything as normal.
“We were ready to go. It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster.”
Was Edwards’ Boro Success Just Luck?
In Middlesbrough’s first game without Rob Edwards, who left the side unprepared a day prior, the team still went on and beat Birmingham City, a decent Championship outfit, 2-1.
There’s a consensus that Edwards was not the sole mastermind for Boro’s early-season success, and that Adi Viveash, now interim boss, was a huge component to the side too.
Despite them sitting second in the league, Boro are tenth for goals per game in the Championship (averaging 1.3 per/90) and have extremely overperformed their xG of 16, scoring 19 – a three-goal swing.
This kind of success is not sustainable.
Boro’s out-of-possession positional play is the root of their success. The side’s shape is extremely impressive, and the right decisions are made in when to press and when to sit back.
But the fans seem aligned that the football was not as good as the results were showing, and that they’d be found out eventually.
Could Edwards’ leaving Boro in a fortunate league position to attract new managers, while getting the club a bit of compensation, be a blessing in disguise?
Are Wolves A Good Switch for Rob Edwards?
Wolves currently sit on two points in the Premier League, 20th in the table after eleven games. They’re projected to finish on the lowest points tally in Premier League history, breaking Derby’s record, who got eleven points in the 2007/08 season.
Only one team has survived with a point total as low as 0-7 points after ten games (a survival rate of 8%). For example, Wolves themselves had just nine points after 16 matches in the 2024-25 season (under Gary O’Neil) and managed to survive following a managerial change.
But no club has ever survived from the position Wolves are in, with two points from eleven games. This season’s situation requires them to make history to survive.
Middlesbrough, who sit in second in the Championship, are in good stead to mount a consistent promotion challenge, especially if they improve on the goalscoring front. But Rob Edwards has seen the bright lights of the top flight and gone for an early change.
If Edwards is seen as the man to guide Wolves’ rebuild in the Championship, then he may not regret going to the Wanderers and seeing them go down anyway.
But there’s a risk that the club part company with him, if fan pressure and poor results take hold in the Premier League, before that reality happens.
Or maybe he becomes a record-breaker, keeping the Wolves up? It’s not beyond the realms of possibility, however unlikely.
The owner of Middlesbrough, Steve Gibson has been left rather helpless in a situation that Rob Edwards manufactured himself, after the club turned Wolves’ initial approach down.
Gibson has never appointed a manager in a job at the time of approaching them, so it will be interesting who he sees fit for next head coach. He’ll certainly be hoping they don’t jump ship after a matter of months!
In June, Edwards said: “There’ll be some tough moments along the way because its 46 games – it’s never smooth“
He stayed at the club for just 16 of those matches. Disappointing for the Boro faithful.
