"THIS is a really big football club with a really passionate fanbase who deserve to see people who really want to be here."
That was Rob Edwards speaking only 10 weeks ago. And he was right. Boro fans do deserve passion. And care. And commitment. And loyalty.
"We're a family," said Edwards in the middle of September.
"If we want to achieve something and we're going to progress and move forward, us, the fans, players and staff have to be together."
Those comments - and there are more, plenty more - for the theme of so many Edwards answers in press conferences and no doubt dressing room team-talks since he took charge in June centred around unity and togetherness.
Words, though, are cheap.
And those words don't reflect at all well on the man who uttered them when he jumps ship at the first possible opportunity.
RECOMMENDED READING:
- This is what it means to Adi Viveash to work for Middlesbrough, a 'great club'
- Adi Viveash's one-word description of Middlesbrough events & verdict on 'special' day
- Middlesbrough star delivered 'colossal performance' against Birmingham
It was only a week ago that Edwards described the Boro job "as one of the best you're going to get at this level or any level in the country".
That good a job that he's willing to walk out seven days later.
Edwards will argue that Wolves are his club and that they might well have been the only club - realistically - who could have tempted him to depart the Riverside just over months after taking charge.
Edwards played for Wolves and then started his coaching career there. He'll be on more money, he'll be managing in the Premier League and, crucially, he'll be living with his wife and children again. Everyone understands that.
But you hoped Edwards remembered where he was before he took charge of Boro. Indeed, where he was this time last year, for it was a year ago today that his dreadful Luton Town side was thumped 5-1 by Boro at the Riverside, leaving the hapless Hatters above the Championship relegation zone on goal difference.
He survived a few more months but was sacked in January and Luton, of course, went on to get relegated.
There was, as we pointed out when Edwards was picked for the Boro gig, plenty of mitigating factors at Luton and it was harsh to simply judge the 42-year-old on failing to keep Luton in the Premier League and failing to stop their slide before a second successive relegation.
But he was damaged goods and on the back of that struggle and the way it ended at Kenilworth Road, it was Boro who opened the door for Edwards to return to the dugout. Boro, a stable Championship club with promotion aspirations and an owner who backs managers with time and money. Could Edwards, given the way it had ended at Luton, have realistically expected or hoped for any better?
Is it too naïve to have hoped Edwards would have this week said that it's his dream to one day manage Wolves but right now he's only four months into his time at Middlesbrough and he wants to repay the faith Steve Gibson and Kieran Scott had placed in him?
Or is it in fact the response Boro and the fans deserved? What about loyalty? And decency?
As Simon Jordan said on talkSPORT this week: “He has no business doing anything other than the job he has got at Middlesbrough. He has been given an opportunity by Steve Gibson who is a good football club owner. He was brought in after the end of his time at Luton where his reputation was damaged a little bit, because their decline was, to some extent, under his watch.
"Remind yourself Rob, that Steve Gibson has given you an opportunity and don’t even be considering moving to Wolves just because you played there.
"It won’t serve him well if he jumps out of the Boro job after five minutes. We’ve seen this before, where people think the grass is greener somewhere else and the opportunity that exists for them, but it isn’t.
“He’s at a good football club, Middlesbrough are in good nick, Gibson will be thinking they can get promoted this season, so he will probably get backed in January. So, pack it in, distance yourself from the Wolves job and get on with the opportunity you’ve been given.
“I really do think there’s a duty of care, an obligation. You’ve been given an opportunity. I don’t suppose in the summer he said to Steve Gibson, ‘I’ll only stay if you don’t sell any players’. I suspect he bit his arm off at the shoulders to get the bloody job in the first place.
“Wolves is not a better job than Middlesbrough. Wolves is a club that’s in managed decline. It’s not a great job. I’m not disputing that Wolves is a great football club. So what? You’re getting relegated from the Premier League, you’re a club in decline because your ownership model has changed its thought processes. As a manager, think bigger and bolder than the end of your nose.”
Wolves are bottom of the Premier League and winless after 11 games. There are 27 games still remaining. If they do indeed go on to suffer relegation this season then it is very much on Edwards' watch. It's not like he's going in with five games left and can claim the damage was already done.
He took credit - rightly - for Luton's promotion after joining in the November of the 2022/23 season, so he'd have to take responsibility if Wolves fail to stay up this season. Another relegation. Then what? He wouldn’t get a job like Boro again.
Edwards was rightly lauded for his communication at Boro. He talked the fans on side before a ball was kicked but then talked himself into trouble this week when he twice refused to rule out the possibility of leaving for Wolves.
It was obvious then that he was at least interested. Chris Wilder never recovered from his bodged handling of the speculation linking him with Burnley. Edwards was well aware of that background. Had he taken his press conference on Friday and again refused to rule out leaving for Wolves, his relationship with supporters would have been beyond repair.
It didn't come to that.
What happened to the togetherness he preached? The unity. The "family"?
"People who want to play for the football club, be here, fight for the club, that’s everything," he said in August.
If only Edwards had taken his own words on board.
Share