Latest news with #KieranScott
The Guardian
10 hours ago
- Sport
- The Guardian
Rob Edwards poised for Middlesbrough manager's job after impressing owner
Rob Edwards is poised to take charge at Middlesbrough after impressing the owner, Steve Gibson, in interviews. Only an unforeseen 11th-hour hitch will prevent the 42-year-old former Luton manager being at the Riverside helm when Boro's players start pre-season training at the end of June. Edwards is due to replace Michael Carrick, who was sacked after the team finished a disappointing 10th in the Championship, after seeing off strong competition from the former Nottingham Forest and Leicester manager Steve Cooper and the Sheffield Wednesday head coach Danny Röhl. It is understood Edwards also ranked high on Gibson's shortlist in 2022 when Carrick took over. Bristol City had given serious consideration to recruiting Edwards as Liam Manning's replacement this month but he was attracted by Boro's infrastructure and the chance to reunite with the club's head of football, Kieran Scott, a former colleague at Wolves. Apart from the 35,000-capacity Riverside Stadium, Boro possess Rockliffe Park, an impressive training facility attached to a luxury hotel in a village south of Darlington. Gibson will challenge Edwards to repeat the feat he achieved with Luton in 2023 and lead the club into the Premier League. Luton then finished 18th in the top flight and were arguably a little unlucky to go down after accruing more points than any of the other five teams relegated in the past two seasons. Luton are freshly installed in League One after a disastrous campaign that included Edwards being sacked in January. The former Wales, Aston Villa and Wolves defender coached England's Under-16s before leading Forest Green Rovers to promotion from League Two in 2022. A brief spell at Watford preceded Edwards's installation at Luton and he swiftly choreographed promotion via the playoffs. Gibson is believed to have been impressed by Edwards's extensive knowledge of Boro's squad, broad tactical blueprint, commitment to youth development and candour regarding his final few months at Luton. Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion The hope on Teesside is that next spring Carrick's successor will guide Boro back into the Premier League for the first time in almost a decade.
BBC News
09-05-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Boro's season can only be viewed as a failure
"I'm carrying on."Those were Michael Carrick's words to me in the bowels of Coventry City's CBS Arena in the minutes after Middlesbrough's 2-0 defeat had condemned them to another season in the Championship.A win would have taken Boro into the top six and a play-off semi-final against Sheffield United. Instead, attention this week has centred on Carrick's future as the club embark on an internal review into a season that began with talk of pushing for automatic promotion and ended mired in mid-table finishing position of 10th, four points outside the play-off places, cannot be viewed as anything other than a failure. Head of football Kieran Scott told BBC Radio Tees Sport last September this was a season the club had identified as being an opportunity because of the particular nature of the it played out two things became clear. Firstly, Scott and Boro's hierarchy were absolutely correct. Leeds United, Burnley and Sheffield United excepted, the division was wide open. Secondly, Boro were making an almighty mess of points total required to make the top six this season was the lowest in more than a decade, yet Boro finished on 64 points, four behind Bristol City in finished 12 points behind Sunderland in fourth and found themselves below Blackburn Rovers, Millwall and West Bromwich Albion a bit of context, when Boro won at Blackburn at the beginning of April, Rovers were winless under new manager Valerien Ismael. The Rovers fans were in revolt and everyone confidently declared their season was over. Boro ended up two points beneath summer's transfer window was widely regarded as Middlesbrough's best for years, but fans' frustrations built throughout the season as they watched a talented squad win back-to-back Championship games on just four occasions, with one of those incorporating their only three-game winning run of the there was the January transfer Emmanuel Latte Lath was sold to Atlanta United for a club record fee of £22.5m, money that precious few Championship clubs can turn down. They did it late in the window and replaced him with Sevilla loanee Kelechi say it did not work out for Iheanacho and Boro would be an understatement. One goal and two assists was the sum total of his output, and by the end of the season he was being jeered from the pitch by his own fans and booed on to it when introduced as a also pushed for the signing of previous loanee Ryan Giles, who had been a great success two seasons ago. This time was different though and long before the season's end Giles had been displaced by another loanee, Sam also hampered Boro considerably. Liverpool loanee Ben Doak lit up the Championship with his displays in the first half of the season, but his January injury deprived the team of his attacking verve and their only point of also endured a sustained spell where there was not a fit senior central defender at the club. That put the spotlight on the manager's decision not to sign a replacement for Matt Clarke when he was allowed to join Derby County in all these issues, going into the final three games Boro's fate was in their own hands. Cue a 2-1 defeat by Sheffield Wednesday from a position of 1-0 up and a missed penalty kick, a goalless draw against a Norwich City side who had just sacked their manager, and then the final day loss at have bemoaned a style of football that was often slow, passive and predictable. Opposing managers queued up to lavish praise on Boro's squad while adding "we knew how they were going to play". This team has a soft centre. Possibly the most damning statistic among many unfavourable numbers is that on the 18 occasions they conceded the first goal of the game they came back to win only twice, whilst losing 13 times. Both of those comeback wins came against newly promoted Oxford is well liked by chairman Steve Gibson, who backed his man after February's home defeat by Watford, a game that seemed to signal the end of the road. However, with fans patience running out - this week's online poll in a local paper had 68% of respondents wanting Carrick sacked – the decision over whether to maintain his faith in his head coach is far from three years into the job, Carrick is the longest-serving manager in the Championship - we will find out in the coming days if that is a record he can hang on to.
