Simon Jordan cannot understand why former Watford manager Rob Edwards is a contender to replace the sacked Chris Wilder at Championship strugglers Middlesbrough, speaking to talkSPORT (3 October, 10am).
Football, as they say, is a fickle mistress. Just ask Rob Edwards.
A couple of months ago, after guiding Forest Green Rovers into the third tier for the very first time, the 39-year-old former Wales international was seen as one of the most exciting coaching talents in the EFL. The League Two Manager of the Season award sitting pretty on his mantelpiece.
If Edwards had been linked with Middlesbrough in, say, July, Boro would have been applauded for considering handing an opportunity to an intriguing, home-grown up-and-coming tactician who had proven himself capable of thriving in the heat of a promotion battle, albeit at a lower level.
Now, following an ill-fated, 11-game spell at Watford on his CV, reports linking Edwards with a move to the Riverside – rightly are wrongly – can now be seen in a very different light.
Rob Edwards a candidate to replace Chris Wilder at Middlesbrough
“How does Rob Edwards become a contender when he gets booted out at Watford?” asks Jordan, the former Crystal Palace owner.
“He did a decent job at Forest Green and showed not any great deal of loyalty. It beggars belief whey he would be in contention for the Middlesbrough job.
“He hasn’t done anything apart from betting the sack with Watford (to justify attracting Middlesbrough’s attention).”
In Edwards’ defence, he was hardlygiven time to put his stamp on things at Vicarage Road; the latest victim of Gino Pozzo’s trigger-happy regime. Can a manager really be judged after just 11 games? Especially when you consider that the squad he inherited back in May, despite Watford eventually retaining both Ismaila Sarr and Joao Pedro in the face of sustained Premier League interest, looks a long way off the likes of Norwich City and in terms of quality and depth.
Wilder meanwhile, a promotion-winner with Sheffield United in 2019, was sacked on Monday morning; the inevitable by-product of a dismal start to a season which promised so much for Middlesbrough. A 1-0 defeat to previously-winless Coventry City proved to be the final straw for owner Steve Gibson.
Per John Percy of The Telegraph, Edwards will be interviewed this week. Bournemouth interim boss Gary O’Neill is another candidate.
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