As revealed by the Northern Echo on Tuesday, Rob Edwards, Steve Cooper and Danny Rohl are the current frontrunners.
That’s not to say there definitely won’t be a twist in the coming days, and other options will continue to be assessed, but as things stands those three managers head the shortlist.
So why do they particularly appeal to Boro? And what would they offer at the Riverside?
We take a closer look:
ROB EDWARDS
It’s not often a sacking statement ends with a club chief executive telling of his wish for the departing manager and his family to return as fans in the future.
But it’s little surprise that Rob Edwards remains so well thought of by those in the stands and executive suites at Kenilworth Road, for he was the manager who led Luton to the Premier League against the odds and then made a decent enough fist of staying there.
Luton came down and this most recent season turned into a nightmare, which led to Edwards’ departure and relegation further down the line, but it’s still not surprising that the 42-year-old features prominently in Boro’s thinking.
Edwards has two promotions on his record, at Forest Green and Luton, and the latter was with a squad that was assembled with a budget that suggested a fight for Championship survival was in store. He was appointed in November, 2022, to replace Nathan Jones, and was available after his short and unsuccessful stint at Watford, where no manager can or should be judged.
The squad he inherited was nowhere near as strong as Boro’s, who Luton were competing with for promotion, but he kept things simple.
“It was a case of playing to our strengths, and making sure we were sticking to a few core principles,” he said in an interview with The Coaches’ Voice.
“If we lose the ball, we want five-second regains; if it’s a recovery run, it’s a sprint; fast support whenever we have the ball. If I can see those three things, I know that we’re working hard.”
Edwards led Luton from 10th to third and up through the play-offs and his success came as a surprise to nobody at Boro, for he was said to be hugely impressive when he sat down in front of Rockliffe officials to interview for the job that ended up going to Michael Carrick. Edwards was right in the mix.
He’s worked with Kieran Scott, Boro’s head of football, at Wolves previously, so there would be an immediate understanding at the top.
A concern for a lot of fans will understandably be the manner of Luton’s fall-off this year and his struggle to arrest the slide. But once a side gets into the habit of losing, it can’t always be fixed with the flick of a switch, especially when so many of the players had climbed their Everest in reaching the Premier League.
It’s also worth remembering that managers, like players, can have off-seasons. This time last year Sunderland appointed Regis Le Bris on the back of a relegation. That turned out OK for the Black Cats.
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STEVE COOPER
With Steve Cooper, like Rob Edwards, it’s not hard to pick out the successes; the questions seem to arise with the manner in which they left their last post.
So what happened with Cooper at Leicester?
First things first, it’s impossible to ignore the fact that due to his Nottingham Forest past, he was never a particularly popular appointment with Leicester fans.
As one national newspaper put it after his sacking, ‘Cooper had to scale a mountain to win over the fanbase’.
Winning over a fanbase was one thing, winning games with a Leicester squad that quite simply wasn’t good enough was another.
Leicester were a point above the relegation zone when Cooper was sacked. They finished the season 13 adrift of safety. It would be quite the leap to say the Foxes would have survived had Cooper stayed in post, but is it not fair to suggest the start he made at the King Power Stadium was actually half decent? Especially considering he was tasked with replacing the impressive Enzo Maresca.
The fact his playing style and approach is different isn’t Cooper’s fault, it’s those who appointed him.
Taking Forest up wasn’t quite the equivalent of Edwards leading Luton to the Premier League against the odds, but they were rock bottom when Cooper took charge in September of 2021.
He took them up and kept them up. And while Forest weren’t quite at Watford levels, there was no sort of security in the City Ground dugout back then. They had six different managers in the three years prior to Cooper getting the job. He was in place for more than two years.
His background is in player development and he understands how to work with and get the best out of youngsters, having managed England Under-17s to their World Cup success. And in his first club management role, he twice led Swansea to the play-offs. Plenty more hits than misses.
DANNY ROHL
Is it any wonder Danny Rohl continues to be linked with so many jobs?
And is it any wonder he’s not committing himself to staying at Sheffield Wednesday?
The Owls are a shambles right now, with ongoing pay issues affecting players and staff. Rohl did as good a job as any manager in the Championship in leading Wednesday to the most unlikely survival in 2023/24 and this season’s top half finish was admirable given the behind the scenes problems. Sheffield Wednesday only finished six points behind Carrick’s Boro.
Southampton were desperate to appoint Rohl in December after sacking Russell Martin but wouldn’t pay what is now the well-known compensation figure to get him out of Hillsborough.
What’s not known is whether that clause will be at all affected by Wednesday’s current issues, which have resulted in charges from the EFL.
Rohl can be excused for now thinking he’s taken Sheffield Wednesday as far as he can while Dejphon Chansiri remains at the helm.
But what does he want next?
The Bundesliga?
“If it were up to me, as soon as possible,” he said in an interview only last week when asked when he’d want to be heading back home for a job in Germany’s top tier.
“The Bundesliga is obviously something special because I grew up with it. For me, it’s always about working at the highest level. I want to compete against the best teams, with the best coaches. I have the good feeling that I’ve been able to generate significant added value over the last 18, 19 months in a demanding league with very different playing styles.”
What Rohl has talked about on countless occasions, though, is finding a club where his ambitions are matched. For Boro next season, the aim, again, will be promotion.
Rohl has a clear idea of the way he wants to play and set principles but crucial for the 36-year-old is enabling and allowing his players to make their own decisions.
He said in one interview: “As managers we can give the players a lot of principles and help them, but decision making on the pitch is down to them.
“This for me is a big part of the training, to bring my players into situations where they have to make decisions.
“I want to see them make decisions on the pitch instead of saying they have to pass to one player or the other.”
It feels increasingly unlikely Rohl will still be manager of Sheffield Wednesday at the start of the season. But he will he be at Boro or elsewhere?
