Wolves have made an approach to Middlesbrough about appointing Rob Edwards as their new head coach.
BBC Sport reported on Sunday that former Luton manager Edwards was among the leading contenders to replace Vitor Pereira, who was sacked following Wolves’ 10-game winless start to the Premier League season.
Wolves held talks with former boss Gary O’Neil, but the 42-year-old withdrew from the running on Monday.
Former Wolves player Edwards, also 42, has always been a strong candidate at Molineux and is emerging as the preferred choice.
It is understood the relegation-threatened club have made contact with Middlesbrough, who are third in the Championship, regarding their interest in appointing Edwards.
Whether that level of contact constitutes an official approach from Wolves to discuss the vacancy with Edwards is unclear, but the wheels are now in motion towards the Premier League side accelerating their plan to make an appointment.
It is understood Wolves would be required to pay significant compensation to Middlesbrough to secure Edwards, who only took over at the Riverside Stadium in June.
Wolves are bottom of the table with only two points after 10 games – eight points adrift of 17th-placed Burnley.
LOCALS in “Britain’s most dangerous” say it has become overrun with knife-wielding kids who are making their lives hell.
In a children’s playground at 2pm on a weekday afternoon, two masked drug dealers bear down on our photographer, spitting threats.
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A hooded young man approached our photographer at Ayresome Gardens childrens play areaCredit: North News & Pictures Ltd
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The remains of a trolley and fire outside homes in the Hemlington area of MiddlesbroughCredit: NNP
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Middlesbrough town centre – where crime is on the riseCredit: North News & Pictures Ltd
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The two young men questioned what our reporter for was doingCredit: North News & Pictures Ltd
The two young men had seen him taking pictures in the town centre park and wanted to make sure they didn’t appear in them, one putting on a balaclava and the second pulling up the hood of his jacket.
After threatening to smash up his equipment, one of them explained the reason they were there.
“We’re here to f*** up your society by selling drugs to the white boys,” he snarls.
It’s an alarming – but perhaps not surprising – welcome to Middlesbrough, the Teesside town which now has the unenviable status of “Britain’s most dangerous”.
New Home Office statistics reveal that the town suffered 158 crimes per 1,000 people – or to put it another way, one person in six was the victim of crime in the past year.
The Community Safety Partnership stats show Middlesbrough was eclipsed only by Westminster (423 crimes per 1,000) and Camden (195) – although both have much higher populations.
After encountering the town centre drug dealers, The Sun went to the crime-plagued Hemlington estate on the south western edge of the town to speak to locals.
The hot topic of the day was the suspension of bus routes to some parts of the estate due to stone and brick attacks by children aged as young as 10.
And another community facility, the Cleveland Huntsman pub, had just had its licence revoked after a man was allegedly stabbed and slashed in an altercation following a spate of criminal damage at the premises.
A number of knife-related cases from recent months are heading through the courts, including the murder of 28-year-old Jordan Hogg.
Our once-booming town has become a benefits sinkhole where HALF of adults are out of work & bored, feral kids set homes alight with fireworks
Four men and two youths deny stabbing him to death in the bleak Fonteyn Court.
It was also on Fonteyn Court that a 19-year-old man was stabbed on August 11 at 5.20pm – and within five minutes a 21-year-old man suffered the same fate on nearby Dalwood Court.
There was a weary acceptance from locals.
“It’s sickening but at the same time it’s just bog standard,” says one elderly woman who stops to chat on Fonteyn Court.
The kids are carrying knives before they’ve left primary school and they learn from the older lads how to use them, the number of stabbings is out of control.
Resident in Fonteyn Court
“The kids are carrying knives before they’ve left primary school and they learn from the older lads how to use them, the number of stabbings is out of control.
“I’d say we need more bobbies, but they have no respect for authority. I mean, just look around you.”
She has a point. The street is split around 50/50 between occupied and boarded up houses. Disconcertingly, voices can be heard coming from behind some of the green shutters.
Mattresses are dumped on pavements and the remains of torched wheelie bins, sofas and shopping trolleys litter the deserted green areas where children might once have played.
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Discarded mattresses in Fonteyn Court, Hemlington, an area which is a crime hotspot in the townCredit: NNP
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Residents say kids are carrying knives before they’ve left primaryCredit: NNP
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Many locals are worried to leave their homes in parts of the townCredit: NNP
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The one rare sign of cheer is that someone has placed a giant paddling pool at the centre of a grassy areaCredit: NNP
The one rare sign of cheer is that someone has placed a giant paddling pool at the centre of a grassy area, a hosepipe leading through the back gate of a neighbouring house.
People are loath to speak publicly for fear of reprisals, but one shopkeeper tells us “feral” kids are at the centre of the problems.
“You can see them lining up at the side of the road to bomb the buses with bricks,” he says.
“Some of them are tiny little kids, screaming and swearing as they chuck stones.”
Police travelling undercover on buses
The situation became so bad that officers from Middlesbrough Neighbourhood Policing Team travelled undercover on buses in the area, leading to the arrest of a 10-year-old boy on suspicion of four counts of criminal damage and three counts of causing danger to road users.
He was later referred to the Youth Offending Team while another boy aged 14 was identified and dealt with for separate offences.
Middlesbrough Council identified a further 10 kids involved in nuisance behaviour, with home visits and “diversionary activity referrals” doles out to their parents.
Acting Inspector Des Horton, from Middlesbrough Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: “This operation not only helps us to identify those involved in these incidents, but also allows us to build up intelligence and provide reassurance to the drivers of the buses that are being targeted.”
In an unconnected incident, two teenagers have been charged with attempted murder after a 17-year-old was stabbed in the estate’s Phoenix Park in May.
And on August 14, a dozen police vehicles swarmed the estate after a police officer was injured as he responded to reports of a man in possession of a knife.
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A hooded youth in Ayresome Gardens childrens play areaCredit: NNP
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Rubbish bags piled up outside homesCredit: NNP
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Wailan Lau says the number of stabbings are ‘completely out of control’Credit: NNP
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John Clark, 85, worries for young members of his family living in the townCredit: NNP
An arrest was made following a five-hour stand-off in which cups, bricks and chairs were hurled in the direction of emergency workers.
Chinese takeaway owner Wailan Lau, 48, has lived in Hemlington for the past 25 years.
He told The Sun: “It has got worse and worse over the years, the number of stabbings we see now is completely out of control, it never used to be like this.
“Where I live is fine, I have the same neighbours I have had for years and it is a proper community, everyone looks out for each other.
“But some parts of the estate are just dangerous, so much so that buses and taxis will not go down those streets.
“A lot of the problems we face are down to drugs and in a lot of cases it is drug dealers fighting drug dealers, but sometimes innocent people get caught up in that, which is scary.
“Kids seem to carry knives all the time and the ones who do are getting younger.
“It’s sad to see this town become one of the worst places in the country for crime because it’s a good place full of good people, unfortunately parts of it have become dangerous.”
Asked whether he knew anyone who had recently been a victim of crime, 17-year-old Harvey Wilson initially shook his head and then suddenly remembered: “Oh yeah, I was held at knifepoint.”
The casual way he recounts a terrifying encounter is chilling.
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Harvey Wilson, 17, described how he’d been robbed at knifepointCredit: NNP
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Certain crimes continue to rise in MiddlesbroughCredit: NNP
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A sign warning customers to ‘please remove hoods when entering shop’Credit: NNP
Harvey, who hopes to become a carpet fitter when he finishes his studies, said: “I’d just gone for a walk near Albert Park in the town and two lads stopped me and pulled a knife.
“Thankfully I’d left my phone at home and didn’t have any money so they just walked away.
“I’ve been able to forget it pretty quickly but I suppose it is quite scary how many people carry knives. I never would but people do.
“There are areas where you know not to go and if you keep yourself to yourself you probably won’t get any trouble, it’s the people who try to make a name for themselves who end up getting hurt.
“If your name gets known you’ll end up getting hurt.”
Things are getting worse and there are way too many young kids getting killed and injured with knives or getting involved with drugs.
John Clark, 82Middlesbrough resident
In the Parkway Centre, just outside Hemlington, John Clark, 82, reflects on the change in his home town over the course of his lifetime.
He started his working life as a hand rammer making sand castings at steel foundry on the river Tees.
John said: “That was my life, working in steel works and foundries and all of that has gone, there’s nothing left of the industry that built the town and that’s a big part of its problems.
“When I was a kid we had prospects and there was work to pay us a wage and keep us occupied, now the young people have nothing.”
He nods down at his young grandson in the buggy he’s leaning on and says: “I don’t worry for myself when I go about in Middlesbrough but I worry for him and younger members of the family.
“Things are getting worse and there are way too many young kids getting killed and injured with knives or getting involved with drugs.
“The brand new sports shop near us got ram raided the other night as soon as it opened by people in flatbed trucks. The place was left in a right mess and he lost all his new stock.”
Rebecca Green, 40, agreed that poverty plays a part in MIddlesbrough’s crime epidemic.
She said: “We live in a part of the world that has high levels of deprivation and that feeds the crime rate, when people are struggling to live they do desperate things.”
Student Shay Thorpe, 18, hopes to be a social worker.
“I’d move away if I could,” she says. “Even though I have always lived here, there are some parts of the town that I wouldn’t go.
“The town centre is scary and you can see from looking round that there’s a major drug problem there.”
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Shay Thorpe, 18, says she would move away if she couldCredit: NNP
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Shuttered up shops in Middlesbrough town centreCredit: NNP
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A person speaks to cops outside Poundland in the town centreCredit: North News & Pictures Ltd
Middlesbrough have appointed ex-Luton Town manager Rob Edwards as their new head coach.
Edwards, 42, moves to the Riverside Stadium on a three-year deal as the replacement for Michael Carrick, who was dismissed earlier this month.
He led Luton to the Premier League in 2023 but could not avoid relegation from the top flight 12 months later and was then dismissed by the Hatters in January when they were 20th in the Championship.
His job is now to improve a Boro team who ended last season in 10th place, four points outside the play-off spots.
“It’s a real privilege to be given the opportunity to be head coach of this great football club,” Edwards told the club website., external
“It’s something that’s not lost on me, how big this is, how important this is, and what it means to people. There is an amazing fanbase.”
Carrick started his coaching career with Manchester United, with whom he won five Premier League titles in his playing days, after retiring in 2018.
He had a spell in caretaker charge of the team in November 2021 after the departure of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer but left when Ralf Rangnick was appointed in December.
Boro turned to him in October the following year after a disastrous start to the season saw them sack Chris Wilder with the club in the relegation zone.
Carrick immediately turned their fortunes around as they flew up the table and into promotion contention.
They ultimately finished fourth for a first play-off campaign in five years but were beaten by Coventry in the semi-finals.
They fell just short of another Premier League push in the following season, as they finished eighth, four points off sixth.
Last season was similar as they headed into the final six games in the play-off spots but came up short in the end.
