Steep learning curve that set Edwards on the road to coaching success

ROB Edwards may only be 42 years old, but when he takes charge of Middlesbrough's season-opener against Swansea City on August 9, it will be his 246th game as a manager.

- By STUART JAMIESON

The days of wily old managers may have gone - Edwards is some way off the youngest in the division next season - but that doesn't mean experience has been replaced by the flush of youth, rather managers are now given their chance at a far younger age.

Middlesbrough will be Edwards' fifth club as a manager, while he has also had spells in charge of England Under-16s, Wolves' Under-23s and a short stint as caretaker manager of the first team at Molineux.

Along the way he has picked up plenty of knowledge from a range of challenging experiences, from guiding Luton to the Premier League and the ultimately unsuccessful fight to keep them there, to taking Forest Green Rovers into League One for the first time in their history.