The former Middlesbrough manager was in charge of England at the time and knew Edwards well, with Boro’s incoming head coach having been in charge of the national Under-16 side.
“He called me to wish me all the best and offer me any support going forward which shows the measure of the man,” said Edwards at the time.
“He’s a class act.”
There’s every chance Southgate will call Edwards again this weekend to congratulate him on his imminent appointment at the Riverside. And Edwards will ask for advice. He’s always looking for advice. He always wants to learn.
When Edwards won promotion with Luton – “almost the impossible”, he said – he called his friend Steve Cooper, who’d gone up and stayed up with Nottingham Forest.
“Rob, it explodes, be ready for it,” Cooper told Edwards.
Edwards only took his first professional managerial job four summers ago but must now feel ready for whatever football can throw at him.
Southgate was in the Boro team Edwards faced when he made his first team debut for Aston Villa 23 years ago.
As a coach, he worked his way from Manchester City’s academy to Wolves’ and then the first team staff at Molineux before being headhunted to join the FA. The progressive coach was placed in charge of England’s Under-16s and was also a specialist ‘in-possession’ expert with the Under-20s. He worked with the likes of Phil Foden, Conor Gallagher and Angel Gomes.
Ask Edwards if he has any regrets from his days as a player and he’ll say it was the fact he played with fear at times.
“I look back and hate that,” he told the High Performance Podcast.
“I was never able to be my best.”
He’ll tell Middlesbrough’s players to “be brave and take risks”.
RECOMMENDED READING:
“If there’s any kind of mistake, do not worry, just react,” he’ll tell his players.
Edwards reacted quickly on December 16, 2023. When his Luton captain, Tom Lockyer, collapsed to the turf after suffering a cardiac arrest, Edwards instinctively legged it on to the pitch.
He urged his players to move away and then led his players to the dressing room, where he cried.
“I said, ‘I’m supposed to be a leader here, but I don’t know what to say. I can’t lead you right now at the moment’,” Edwards later told the Athletic.
Leaders aren’t afraid to be vulnerable. And he showed his class when he took his players back out on to the pitch and did a full lap applauding the supporters. By the time he got to the hospital to visit Lockyer, his captain was awake, alert and talking.
“Rob’s biggest thing is that he is a very, very nice man,” Andy Pryce, former chairman of Telford United, who Edwards managed in 2017, told the Guardian.
“He is one of those people that if you can see he is putting in the hard work, then you would run through brick walls for him and go into battles every day.”
Pryce added: “You’ve seen the right side of Rob this year when it comes to unfortunate situations like with Tom Lockyer’s health issues. He deals with them in the right manner.
“I texted him after they got promoted and the first game of the Premier League to say: ‘Well done and you’ve come a long way from the Conference North to the Premier League!’ He texted back and always takes the time to communicate with the people he has worked with over the years. I’m sure that at Luton he has got to know everybody and spent time with them.”
Don’t be fooled into thinking being nice can be a weakness.
“He’s also got an edge that people may not necessarily see,” said Richie Kyle, his assistant at Luton.
“If something’s not done the way he wants, or someone’s not working hard enough, he’ll make it known.”
What he’ll also make known to his Boro players is his desire for them to express themselves.
“We’re in the entertainment business,” he told the High Performance Podcast.
“Yeah, we’re in the winning business as well, but I want us to entertain, I want our supporters to enjoy watching us and to be proud watching us.
“I want us to be bold and take risks. I stand and say to the boys, ‘take risks. If we make mistakes, I don’t care. I’ll make mistakes. We’re human beings. What matters is we react the right way’.”
Edwards reacted to Luton’s extremely difficult start to life in the Premier League.
“You can watch as many Premier League games as you want but until you’re actually in it, you don’t realise how quick it is,” his former assistant Kyle told the Guardian.
“What we’d been doing in the Championship wasn’t working, Rob realised that and adapted tactically.
“When I think how quickly Rob’s developed to work at this level, and deal with the demands of the Premier League, it’s amazing.
“Two years ago we were in League Two. And he looks like he’s been doing this 10 years already.”
How will his Boro side play?
“I’ll have some non-negotiables,” he said during an interview with the Athletic when he was Luton boss.
“I want us to press, I want to attack quickly. I want control, but I don’t want it just for control’s sake.
“There’s got to be a purpose with our play. So if you ask, I love how Liverpool play, I love how Tottenham play, I love how Newcastle play. I’m completely mesmerised by Manchester City, who are amazing but different with the complete control they have.
“We want to entertain. We want to try and be good to watch.”
Edwards was in good company when he did his pro licence, sitting the course alongside Mikel Arteta, Pep Lijnders and Thierry Henry.
“I think they deserve more credit than any other team in this league,” said Arteta of Edwards’ Luton a couple of seasons ago.
Despite nobody fancying Luton to stay up, Edwards still saw relegation from the Premier League as “failure”.
“I don’t want to go back to the Championship,” he said that season.
Edwards will want to get Boro out of the Championship as soon as possible.
