Middlesbrough reject Wolves approach for head coach Rob Edwards

Wolves’s approach for Rob Edwards has been rejected by Middlesbrough, with the Championship club determined to keep hold of their head coach. Wolves want Edwards to succeed Vítor Pereira but after Gary O’Neil pulled out of advanced talks on Monday, Boro dismissed Wolves’s attempt to lure Edwards on Thursday afternoon.

Edwards joined Boro in the summer on a three-year contract until 2028 and the club are adamant they want to keep him after leading them to third in the division. Wolves were hoping to tempt Edwards to swap a promotion charge for a relegation battle, with the Molineux club bottom of the Premier League after claiming just two points from their opening 10 matches.

Wolves and particularly their executive chair, Jeff Shi, are longstanding admirers of Edwards, who previously played and coached at the club. Edwards also had a short spell in caretaker charge in 2016, shortly after Fosun, Wolves’ owners, bought the club. Wolves were willing to pay Boro compensation to extract Edwards from his contract.

Boro are reluctant for Wolves’s interest in Edwards to descend into a saga and have acted quickly in an attempt to prevent the situation escalating.

Edwards’s Boro side earned a stoppage-time 1-1 draw at Leicester on Tuesday and host Birmingham on Saturday. The 42-year-old former Forest Green Rovers, Luton and Watford manager will hold a pre-match press conference on Friday, with his future likely to dominate the discourse. After Tuesday’s draw, Edwards said of the links: “I’ve not paid any attention to it all myself. I’m just concentrating on my job here at Middlesbrough.”

Wolves, meanwhile, visit Chelsea on Saturday with under-21 head coach James Collins and under-18s head coach Richard Walker poised to take charge. O’Neil, who is out of work, verbally agreed to take over but had a change of heart amid a fan backlash.

The majority of Wolves supporters vehemently opposed O’Neil’s return and the Supporters’ Trust said on Monday, before O’Neil pulled out of the recruitment process, that his reappointment “would show a clear lack of strategic direction by the club hierarchy”.