Wolves Sack Rob Edwards, Cesar Peixoto Set to Replace

Wolverhampton Wanderers have sacked Rob Edwards in a brutal summer twist and are closing in on Portuguese coach Cesar Peixoto as his replacement.

Edwards, who only arrived at Molineux last season and played a key role in landing marquee signings Kieran Trippier and Raúl Jiménez in recent weeks, has been told by the club’s hierarchy that his time is up. The decision cuts across the upbeat mood that had started to build around a squad being reshaped for life back in the Championship.

Wolves finished bottom of the Premier League last season, a campaign that saw Vitor Pereira dismissed in November and Edwards brought in with a clear brief: steady the ship, accept likely relegation, and oversee a rebuild in the second tier. The club backed that vision strongly at the time, paying Middlesbrough – then top of the Championship – £4 million in compensation to prise Edwards away.

Now that plan has been ripped up.

Behind the scenes, powerful forces have been at work. Peixoto, represented by the Jorge Mendes-owned Gestifute agency, has emerged as the man Wolves are poised to appoint. The 43-year-old’s coaching career to date has been confined to Portugal, most notably as head coach of Gil Vicente, yet he stands on the brink of taking over a club in need of stability and identity after a chaotic year.

The timing is jarring. Edwards had forged a close working relationship with technical director Matt Jackson, and together they had targeted British players this summer to strengthen the home-grown core of the squad. That approach was already reshaping recruitment and, internally, was viewed as a key pillar of Wolves’ reset.

The club had also placed Edwards front and centre of its new narrative. He appeared in Jiménez’s “Welcome Home” video, released on social media just two days ago to trumpet the Mexican striker’s return. Trippier, unveiled in midweek, openly cited Edwards’ presence as a major reason for committing to the project, talking up the cultural shift the manager had begun to drive since his arrival.

Yet while those messages were being pushed out in public, another story was unfolding in private. Mendes and his associate Valdir Cardoso, long-standing confidants of Wolves’ owners Fosun since their takeover in 2016, were working on a deal to bring in Peixoto before the new campaign kicks off.

The pressure finally told. The club that once rode a Mendes-powered wave into Europe has turned back to that network again, even at the cost of tearing up a carefully sold rebuild under Edwards.

The positivity generated by the arrivals of Trippier and Jiménez now hangs in the balance, overshadowed by a decision that leaves players, staff and supporters facing yet another reset. Wolves wanted a fresh start in the Championship. Instead, they have another upheaval and a new Portuguese coach on the way.