What ex-Wolves teammate Matt Murray once warned everyone about Rob Edwards | OneFootball

The former head coach had a lasting impact on the former goalkeeper, who met him when the pair were together at Molineux in the 2000s.

The former Wolverhampton Wanderers goalkeeper Matt Murray played with Rob Edwards in the 2000s at Molineux, and in 2023 he had a memorable warning for anyone who thought that Edwards might be a soft touch as a manager.

Of all the managerial changes that took place in the Championship over the course of the summer, few caused a greater amount of surprise than the sacking of Rob Edwards by Wolverhampton Wanderers. It wasn't that Wolves didn't have a terrible 2025-26. They did, after all, finish the season rock bottom of the table, with just three Premier League wins and an enormous 21-gap between themselves and safety.

But the arrival of Edwards from Championship club Middlesbrough was definitely not supposed to end this way. Wolves had moved heaven and earth to prise the manager from Boro in the first place, paying just under £4 million in compensation for him in November 2025. This prompted speculation in the press that they could be "preparing for life in Championship" under Edwards, even though they'd barely played a quarter of the season at the time of his appointment.

As a former Wolves player, Edwards' return to Molineux was supposed to be a form of homecoming, but he managed just seven months in the position. Previous comments made by the former goalkeeper Matt Murray, though, have shone some light on the managerial skill-set that Edwards has developed in the first place.

Former Wolves goalkeeper Murray has spoken about Rob Edwards' managerial style

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When Luton Town returned to the Premier League under Rob Edwards in 2023, they would be facing his former club, so the Wolves Former Players Association spoke to Matt Murray about him. Murray had a memorable turn of phrase when it came to his former team-mate, and in particular that Edwards' man-management didn't mean that he was a soft touch.

"Do not ever take the ‘niceness’ of Rob Edwards as a weakness," he told them.

The former Wolves goalkeeper emphasised that Edwards' demeanour didn't mean that players who'd let him down knew that they had done so. "If you mess him about, you will be dropped," Murray said, "He won’t walk in and punch you in the face, but he will look you in the eye and you will know that you have disappointed him."

Murray spent twelve years at Molineux, although his appearances for Wolves were severely restricted by a succession of serious injuries. Best remembered for his outstanding performance in the 3-0 win play-off final win against Sheffield United in 2003, which promoted them to the top-flight for the first time since 1984, Murray was there for the whole of Edwards' four-year stay at the club, which lasted from 2004 to 2008.

Rob Edwards has had to overcome persistent set-backs throughout his career

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Wolves' stay in the Premier League following that 2003 promotion only lasted for one season before relegation straight back. Rob Edwards, meanwhile, had come up through the academy at Aston Villa, but despite breaking into the first-team at the age of twenty in 2002, he couldn't hold down a place and was sold to Wolves in the summer of 2004 for £150,000.

Edwards' injury issues started almost immediately. After five games for his new club, an ankle injury sidelined him for six months. Upon recovery, he had his longest spell in the first-team at Molineux. He returned for the last three months of the 2004-05 season, and then made 42 league appearances throughout the 2005-06 season, as Wolves finished the season 7th in the Championship.

He continued in the first team throughout much of 2006-07, before an ACL injury in April ended his season. And he was still working his way back to fitness when, in September, he suffered another knee injury, this time in a reserve team match against Walsall, which set him back again. Sold to Blackpool at the end of the 2007-08 season, he played 100 League games in total for Wolves over four seasons in total.

Murray's own injury record was, if anything, even more unfortunate than Edwards' was. He only played 96 games for Wolves over twelve years and had to retire at 29 in 2010 after failing to overcome a knee injury. One of the two full seasons that he did play throughout his career, however, was the 2006-07 season, when Edwards was also a regular before that first serious knee injury.

That these two players should have bonded, given their histories, is no surprise. And Rob Edwards has since had to face up to adversity in his managerial career too, having been sacked by both Watford and Wolverhampton Wanderers, as well having departed from Luton Town "by mutual consent.'

Both in terms of players and injuries as well as managers and the sack, professional football can be a cut-throat world. But those who build up inner strength through adversity can show it, and it often manifests in the sort of leadership skills which carry great weight in the managerial marketplace.

Rob Edwards went on to play Premier League football for Blackpool, and retired from playing in October 2013, more than five years after leaving Molineux the first time around. Even though he was relieved of his duties at Wolves again in the summer and has left the club for a second time, he will surely be back in management again soon.