How much money Wolves will pay Middlesbrough in Rob Edwards compensation | OneFootball

Premier League Wolverhampton Wanderers are set to appoint Middlesbrough's Rob Edwards as their new manager. Here's what they'll have to pay for him.

Middlesbrough are set to lose their manager to Wolverhampton Wanderers, but the Premier League club will have to pay compensation for taking him from The Riverside Stadium.

Middlesbrough may have beaten Birmingham City 2-1 at The Riverside Stadium on Saturday afternoon, but the win was overshadowed by growing reports that manager Rob Edwards is set to leave the club to go to Wolverhampton Wanderers to fill the gap left by the sacking of their previous manager Vitor Pereira.

The win, coupled with Stoke City's 1-0 home defeat to Coventry City, lifted them back into the second automatic promotion place for a return to the Premier League.

But Boro owner Steve Gibson now faces the prospect of having to find a new manager as his club seek to return to the top-flight following an absence of over eight years, with reports that Edwards is to depart.

David Ornstein of The Athletic has reported on the social media platform X that Edwards is imminent, with Wolves set to confirm the appointment of Edwards early next week.

And while it's little more than a silver lining considering the amount of disruption that it will cause to their season, Ornstein adds that Middlesbrough have agreed a £2 million compensation package to allow Edwards to leave the club.

Edwards is expected to sign a three-and-a-half year contract with the Molineux outfit, and Ornstein reports that Wolves will be backing him in the January transfer window as he seeks to turn around a dismal Premier League campaign which sees them well adrift at the foot of the table, with just two points taken from their first eleven matches of the season and the team already eight points from safety.

The news that Edwards is to leave The Riverside Stadium after less than five months with the club has come as a major shock to everyone on Teesside.

Middlesbrough finished last season by tailing off from contention for a play-off place to eventually finish 10th, a position which cost former manager Michael Carrick his job.

Edwards does have a sentimental link to Molineux. He spent four years with the club as a player between 2004 and 2008, making over 100 appearances for them.

A combination of that attachment and the lure of the Premier League seems to have been enough to persuade him to swap Teesside for the Black Country.

While this compensation has been 'agreed' with Middlesbrough, the club's fans may have reason to pause over the amount.

£2 million isn't a huge amount of money, and this amount certainly wouldn't look like much were their season to be knocked off course by this change, resulting in them missing out on the huge pay-day that comes with promotion to the Premier League.

It is, in many respects, a reflection on the power imbalance between Premier League clubs and those in the Championship that Boro were not in a strong position over these negotiations, even though Edwards had only been with them for a short while.

The truth is that the Premier League remains the summit of the international club game, and it is rare - as former Wolves manager Gary O'Neil did last week - for a manager to turn down the opportunity to manage any club at that level.

All of this confirms why Middlesbrough were so keen to retain a manager who's had such a strong start to the season with them, but also why Wolves are so keen to take him from them.