Is Rob Edwards The Most Hated Manager Ever?

Is Rob Edwards The Most Hated Manager Ever?

Probably one of the most important aspects to a football club is the manager. If the club get it right and hire the right person then it can transform that club.

A recent example would be Nuno at Forest, taking over from Steve Cooper he completely turned the club around from a relegation candidate to getting them to the Europa League (albeit very controversially) in his first full season. The less said about what's happened this season the better, am i right Mr Marinakis?

Or managers can have the complete opposite effect, if the club get the appointment wrong then it can completely set a club back years. The manager that springs to mind has actually done this to two clubs, and his name is Wayne Rooney. He took over at Birmingham for just 83 days and in just that short span he took them from sixth when he took over to 20th when he left and by the end of the season. Birmingham went down. He then did it again to Plymouth the following season, during his 30 games in charge he only picked up five wins in that time., when he eventually got sacked it was too late and Plymouth went down.

Now turning our attention to the main man of the article, Rob Edwards. He has had some big ups at clubs but also some big downs and whenever he leaves a club he managed it always seems to be in bad taste.

Forest Green Rovers

Starting at his first professional role. He took over at Forest Green in the 2020/2021 season and this was easily one of his best roles. He took over for just one season but managed to get them promoted to League 1 for the clubs first ever time, winning League 2 Manager of the Season as well. All looked up as the club were looking forward to taking on League 1 with Rob at the wheel.

However, things turned sour very quickly. While all the good was happening Watford and Rob Edwards were secretly talking behind Forest Greens back. Watford themselves advised Rob Edwards to not let Forest Green know about the negotiations which led to the Forest Green owner, Dale Vince, to call it “deceit”.

When it was officially announced Forest Green put out a statement saying, “We’re disappointed that our support, loyalty and honesty towards Rob has been repaid in this way – with negotiations taking place behind our backs.” Which shows the bitter taste left in the mouths at Forest Green.

Breaking news: We can confirm the departure of Head Coach, Rob Edwards - full statement on our website. 👉https://t.co/oNVEju0yjv pic.twitter.com/ykBRFF65Yp

— Forest Green Rovers (@FGRFC_Official) May 11, 2022

Watford

Once he joined Watford Rob had a whole summer to prepare for the new season. Off the back of getting Forest Green promoted the season before hopes were high. But we all know how managing at Watford goes.

He was sacked after just 11 games in charge, only amounting to three wins in that time. Now you’d think why is he hated for that, yes he was below average but he didn’t do anything to antagonise Watford fans during his time at the club.

The next club he joined was Watford’s biggest rivals, Luton Town.

Luton Town

During his time at Luton is where he see’s his biggest bit of success and then at the same time also his biggest struggle. Just two months after getting sacked by Watford he takes over Luton and has instant success. Taking them all the way to the play off final and eventually beating Coventry on penalties to take Luton to the Premier League for the first ever time in the clubs history.

Expectations weren’t high and Luton did end up going down but not without some highlights, most notable results being a 4-0 win over Brighton (cheers lads), their first Prem win when they beat Everton 2-1 and a couple others.

Starting again next season in the Championship they were one of the favourites to go straight back up but my word was that completely wrong. They struggled massively much to everyone’s surprise because with Rob Edwards still being there all expectations were for them to replicate what they did two years prior.

Bad results kept piling up and everyone was thinking when they’d finally kick on but they never did and things started to become very toxic between fans and the club, they were expecting to be in a promotion fight and not a relegation fight, Rob Edwards legacy at Luton was slowly but surely crumbling in front of his eyes. He eventually was sacked in January of 2025, 103 games in charge. Luton couldn’t get things together and for the first time since Sunderland in 2018, a club back to back relegations from the Premier League to League 1.

Despite not all Luton fans not hating Rob their feelings are certainly mixed towards him. Some can appreciate what he’s done for Luton by getting them promoted to the Premier League but other fans might not be able to look past him being key to getting them relegated to League 1.

Middlesbrough

Now moving onto the most recent and easily the most controversial of his managerial spells. Rob took over from Middlesbrough in July of this year with a very good squad, and he started unbelievably well. Winning five of his first six league games and only lost four games across his 16 games in which he took charge for.

He had Middlesbrough in second place and one of the favourites to go up to the Premier League. However, like when he was at Forest Green he was talking this time to Wolves behind Middlesbrough’s back.

The club found out and they weren’t happy. Same can also be said about the fans…

pic.twitter.com/Zoj5s113IS

— Blain (@blainalllinson) November 8, 2025

Rob has now just joined the car crash of which Wolves are right now, who look destined to go down. It would be very fitting for Wolves to go down while Middlesbrough go up come the end of the season but I’ll guess we’ll have to wait.

So you could 100% argue that Rob Edwards is one of the most hated managers in the world because he can’t stop leaving clubs in a bad way.