Luton Town trend should alarm Middlesbrough ahead of Rob Edwards arrival | OneFootball

One particular trend seen towards the end of Rob Edwards' time at Luton Town should be a concern for his new club Middesbrough.

A new era is set to get underway at Middlesbrough as the club prepare to appoint former Luton Town boss Rob Edwards as their new manager.

Middlesbrough looked firmly on course to secure a play-off place last season when they sat as high as fifth in the table in late January, but a poor second half of the campaign saw them miss out on the top six, with the Teesside outfit eventually finishing in 10th place.

After conducting a lengthy internal review into the events of the season, Boro parted company with head coach Michael Carrick earlier this month, bringing his two-and-a-half-year spell at the club to an end.

A whole host of names have been linked with the vacancy at the Riverside Stadium in recent weeks, including Robbie Keane, Jon Dahl Tomasson, Steve Cooper and Danny Rohl, but it now seems that Edwards is in pole position to land the job.

According to Sky Sports journalist Rob Dorsett, Edwards is in "advanced talks" to take over at Boro, and a deal could now be "completed quite quickly", but it is fair to say the news has been greeted with a mixed reaction from supporters.

Middlesbrough are taking a big Rob Edwards gamble after Luton Town nightmare

Edwards has been out of work since leaving Luton by mutual consent in January, and his tenure at the club was certainly one of contrasting fortunes.

After spells in charge of AFC Telford United, England Under-16s, Forest Green Rovers and Watford, Edwards replaced Nathan Jones at Kenilworth Road in November 2022, and six months later, he led the club to promotion to the Premier League for the first time in their history after beating Coventry City on penalties in the play-off final at Wembley.

Having been in non-league just nine years earlier, few gave Luton a chance of surviving in the top flight, but Edwards and his players earned plenty of praise for their brave and spirited performances in the first half of the season, and it looked as though they had a genuine chance of staying up when they sat outside the relegation zone in early February.

However, after failing to adequately strengthen the squad in the January transfer window, the second half of the season proved to be much more challenging for the Hatters, and they were relegated after winning just one of their final 17 games of the campaign.

Given Luton's financial disadvantage, it was difficult to lay too much of the blame for relegation at Edwards' door, but with many feeling that he had a squad that was well-equipped to compete in the Championship, they were widely tipped to be among the promotion front-runners at the start of last season.

Unfortunately for Edwards, it certainly did not work out that way, and the 42-year-old departed in January with the Hatters sitting just outside the bottom three after winning only seven of their first 26 league games, and they went on to be relegated under his replacement, Matt Bloomfield.

It is a little surprising to see Edwards land such a big Championship job after the dismal end to his time at Luton, but his stock clearly remains high within the football world, which is underlined by the fact that he was also said to be on Bristol City's shortlist of candidates to replace Liam Manning before they opted for ex-Barnsley manager Gerhard Struber.

Edwards does deserve another opportunity in the second tier, but there are big question marks over whether he is the right man to take Middlesbrough forward, and an alarming trend seen in the latter part of his spell at Kenilworth Road will surely be a concern for his new employers.

While Boro were inconsistent both home and away in the second half of last season, their form on the road was a particular problem, with eight of their 12 away defeats coming after the turn of the year.

Boro were beaten by the likes of Portsmouth, Preston North End, Sheffield United, Bristol City, Swansea City, Millwall, Sheffield Wednesday and Coventry City on their travels, often putting in passive performances and conceding soft goals, which would likely have been one of the big contributing factors behind Carrick's dismissal.

If they are to maintain a promotion challenge next season, Boro will need to seriously improve their away form, but Edwards lost all of his final 10 away games as Luton manager, with his side suffering some comprehensive defeats during that run, and that raises huge doubts about whether he can instill the necessary resilience in his new squad.

Ironically, one of the low points of the Hatters' relegation season came at the Riverside Stadium in November when they fell to a 5-1 defeat, and after he gave what appeared to be an emotional farewell interview post-match, many felt that Edwards' time at the club should have come to an end at that point, rather than remaining in post for another two months.

Having first been linked with the club in October 2022, Boro have been long-standing admirers of Edwards, but owner Steve Gibson is taking a big risk by handing him a managerial lifeline, and with large sections of the fan base unconvinced by his imminent appointment, he will need to make a strong start to his reign.