Middlesbrough Championship Odds: Edwards has critics to silence

Middlesbrough finally made the change to get rid of Michael Carrick at the end of last season after they failed to make the play-offs with a final day defeat at Coventry City. In his place comes Rob Edwards, who suffered a difficult spell at Luton Town last season. 

It’s been a summer of change, but now Edwards has got the buy-in from the Boro fans and is looking forward to a fresh start. Below you can find my Middlesbrough Championship Odds as well as a season preview.

Edwards looked like a beaten man at the end of his Luton spell, and that does concern me a little bit, but the team he has around him fills me with a little more optimism. Adi Viveash is somewhat of a coup having been out of work since leaving Coventry last summer having - alongside Mark Robins - taken them from League 2 all the way to the Championship play-off final. 

If Edwards is set to revert to a three at the back system, Viveash is more than comfortable coaching that, and it could be a match made in heaven. How much of a hangover the manager himself will have after a brutal 12 months as a manager remains to be seen.

Championship Odds

Transfer business

In: Abdoulaye Kante (£2.5m), Alfie Jones and Callum Brittain (both undisclosed).

Out: Josh Coburn (£5m), Anfernee Dijksteel and Jonny Howson (both free). 

The transfer section of Middlesbrough’s preview is looking quite sparse right now. Abdoulaye Kante comes in for a decent fee from Troyes while Alfie Jones and Callum Brittain are two good defensive signings with Championship experience. 

They’ve got brilliant money for Josh Coburn who heads to Millwall on a permanent basis after his loan spell, while the iconic Jonny Howson finally called time on his Boro career after eight years. Perhaps the biggest transfer saga is yet to be finalised however, as Hayden Hackney turned down a move to Ipswich Town but is surely still keen on making a move to a higher level. 

If he leaves, Boro will have to spend wisely, having not splashed the money from the Emmanuel Latte Lath sale in January that well to date.  

Key Player: Finn Azaz 

There’s loads of individuals I really like in this Boro team, but the one who clearly stands out (aside from Hackney), is Finn Azaz. Hopefully the back three Edwards is likely to play with means that the former Plymouth man gets to play in his preferred number 10 role, and isn’t shifted out wide to accommodate anybody else. 

Twelve goals and 11 assists last season gave him 23 goal contributions in total, and both Edwards and Viveash will be working hard to make sure he can post similar numbers this time around. Aidan Morris is a good midfielder alongside him, but Azaz could be the star of the show again in the second tier. 

Only Josh Brownhill and Joel Piroe posted more goal contributions than Azaz last season, and I’m excited to see where he can take this Boro side. 

Prediction: 14th

This feels like it could be far too low given Boro have an excellent squad and at the time of writing, still have Hackney, one of the best midfielders in the Championship. I can’t speak highly enough of Viveash as a Coventry fan, but I just worry about a couple of things with Boro this term. 

Edwards, having picked up where Nathan Jones left off at Luton, hasn’t shown too much as a manager in the last year, and that is a concern. He looked like a defeated man at the end of his time at the Hatters and his post-match interviews were some of the saddest I’ve seen on a football pitch. 

Football Odds

How much has that impacted him in the long-term? Will he be able to get back on track after a spell away from the touchline? Can Boro cope with the loss of Howson in the dressing room? If the answer is yes to all three of these questions, there’s no doubt that they can crack the top six. 

On paper though, they have the toughest opening four fixtures of any team at this level and if Edwards doesn’t get off to a strong start, I worry for his confidence, the fan backlash and Boro’s hopes ths season. Add in Hackney’s potential departure and it could be another mid-table finish.

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