Rob Edwards has discussed his decision to leave Middlesbrough for Wolves

Rob Edwards has broken his silence on his decision to leave Middlesbrough for Wolves almost one year ago, detailing four key reasons why he made the decision.

Edwards spent just four months in charge of Boro at the start of last season. But, in controversial circumstances, he walked out on the club almost one year ago to take charge at Wolves.

His exit prompted fury from Boro fans, but eventually led to the appointment of Kim Hellberg, who guided Boro to the play-off final, and now sees them sat at the top of the Championship.

Edwards, meanwhile, is out of work after his move to Wolves did not work out. With only three wins, he could not help the Black Country club survive relegation. And despite his impression that he was going in to build the club for the future regardless, he was sacked in the summer.

Now, appearing on The Managers podcast with Mick McCarthy and former Boro boss Tony Pulis, Edwards has opened up for the first time about the controversial switch from the Riverside to Wolves.

Asked about the move, and the noise surrounding it, Edwards said: “You’re always aware that it’s being discussed a lot out there, but you obviously don’t look at anything.

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“You can’t look at it. People don’t know me and why I’m going to do it, or want to do it. It was a difficult decision because Middlesbrough is an amazing football club.

“Steve Gibson is a brilliant owner and we’d made a brilliant start. It was the best start they’d ever made in their history.

“So everything is going well and we’ve got off to a great start. But here’s an opportunity now to manage in the Premier League.

“I’ll give you my reasons. It was a chance to manage in the Premier League again which, let’s be honest, is really hard to do for a young British coach. So it was more experience there.

“I’ve also been there [Wolves] for nine or ten years as a player and a coach, so I know everyone there. It’s a big pull for me as well.

“And then I can go and live at home again with my family. I’ve been two or three hours away, so I can go and live at home again and go home to them again every night.

“Then the final one was, Wolves were in a dire situation and that’s why we were getting the opportunity. Of course they wanted to stay up, but I think everyone had already accepted it was probably going to be a relegation fight.

“So the ideal was that we were going in to help build it to then be able to go back up. That was the idea anyway.”

The conversation on Middlesbrough ended there, with Pulis moving the conversation on to discuss his Wolves exit off the back of Edwards’ final point.

Pulis shared his surprise that Wolves sacked Edwards this summer after relegation from the Premier League, admitting he felt the same as Edwards that he’d be given the brief of getting Wolves back to the top flight this season.

Edwards said: “It was a surprise. You’ve got to respect the decision. That’s football. We got 18 points in the second half of that season and, with the team we had, you look at that and think we did some decent work there.

“But, I get it. We only won three games. We got quite a few draws, but we lost a lot of games. It took a long time to get it to where we wanted it… well, we never got it to where we wanted it, because it was more about building for next season and going forward from there.

“Look, it’s fine, it’s done. I was disappointed, of course. It was one that meant a lot to me as well. I always want the club to do well.”

Out since his exit, Edwards is said to have turned down Burnley twice since his Wolves exit - once in the summer, and once this week after the sacking of Nicky Hayen.

On his future, he said: “I’ve enjoyed the time out. But I feel good and I feel ready. The next one just has to be right. There’s been one or two things, and it’s nice that the phone’s been going. But I need it to be right.

“We’ll see what happens. It’s hard to talk about because maybe you are relying on someone’s misfortune for a job to become available.”