Rob Edwards believes Wolves are already starting to make improvements to get the club back on course after relegation into the Championship was confirmed this week.
The Old Gold have been sat bottom of the Premier League standings since the start of a difficult season which will end with Wolves bringing an end to their eight-year spell in the top flight.
But with five games of the season remaining – beginning with the visit of fellow strugglers Tottenham Hotspur to Molineux on Saturday afternoon – Edwards wants the team to finish as strong as possible to take momentum into a summer full of change.
On relegation being confirmed
“We didn’t want it. Of course, we didn’t, no-one did, so it’s tough to take, but we’ve known where we’ve been since we arrived. We’re bottom of the league and almost marooned there all season long, so the reality is that there was a good chance it was going to happen.
“It hurt, but what we have to show now is what we’re about. We have to react in the right way and I feel the players and the staff have done that this week after it was confirmed. It wasn't easy, and I don’t think it was ever going to be, but it’s about how we respond moving forward.
“There are loads of reasons. From the very top, right the way throughout the football club, there’s been mistakes made for a number of years, and the trend the club have been on for a while has almost been leading to this. There is a lot there for us to learn, and we’ve held our hands up. This league is absolutely ruthless, and if you make some mistakes, then you can get punished and you can be in this position – and we’re seeing that with a number of clubs.
“We’ve been able to make some improvements and I think we’ve been able to build a little bit of hope for a while, but what we need to do now is respond in the right way. We want to try and take some momentum and positive momentum into next season, on and off the pitch. We’ve got to try and respond in the best way possible, and we get a chance to do that tomorrow.”
On facing Tottenham at Molineux
“Roberto is obviously in for a reason because there’s been some difficulties there. You can see some of the changes that he’s been able to make really quickly, but this league is hard, and changing momentum is very difficult to do.
“We’ve looked at the last couple of games and there’ll be things that he’ll be pleased with, and there’ll be things that he’ll look to fix, and he’s another week further down the line of working with them, so that will help them. But it’s a really good game, it’s an interesting game because there’s a lot of interest in it as well outwardly.
“It shouldn’t be one that’s difficult for us to respond to, even though we’ve had the disappointment of this week, so I’m really hoping that we can show the best side of us, especially after the last couple of results, and perform really well. We know it’ll be a very difficult game because although they’ve had a tough season, they’ve still got a lot of good players in that dressing room.”
A message to supporters from Nathan Shi. pic.twitter.com/MFN6EzPXUo
— Wolves (@Wolves) April 20, 2026
On taking momentum into next season
“That’s always been the case. We’ve always maintained that we want to try and finish as strongly as possible. It’s been another trend over the last few years that we’ve not done that as a football club, so trust me, that is the message that we are instilling here. It’s the message that we’re driving every single day, and we will really try to do that. I wish I could guarantee results, I can’t do that, but we’ve got to guarantee our performance levels are high.
We want to finish strongly, and I won’t be handing out minutes to people who don’t necessarily deserve it. That’s important. The players have got to deserve it, they’ve got to warrant that appearance, and the young players that have got minutes this year is because they deserved it as well. We’ve got a number of young players that we do like, there’ll be a couple of them involved in the squad tomorrow and then we’ll see, but it’ll be down to them and their performances and how they perform in training to get the opportunity.
On in-fighting within the squad
“It happened and it’s not uncommon, although we didn’t like it, it’s been dealt with. It was a couple of weeks ago and we’ve moved on from that.
“There’s always emotion because there’s a lot of passion here. It’s not uncommon for arguments to happen and sometimes things can get physical, rarely, but it can happen. We’ve got a group that do care and the situation we’ve been in this year has been difficult. But it’s not something I’m having to control or be concerned about. There they are a tight group and sometimes emotions can spill over.
“I’m not going to comment on who was a ‘sole aggressor’ and whether it was one or not, but the bottom line is that there’s a group of people that care a lot about trying to win games of football. They want to do well for themselves as well as for each other and after the game, things can happen, but we’ve got a group of players in there that do care, that are with us and with me, so I’ve got no problem with any of the individuals.”
On making changes in the summer
“There’ll be a lot of changes, and I think there needs to be. But that’s all well and good me just saying that, we’ve got to make sure that we execute the plan and we back that up with good work. We all know what we want to try and do – we want to build a group and a squad that are capable of coming back and getting back here.
“It’s difficult because that league is tough, but we’ve got a lot of good experience in the coaching staff of doing that. Counting in our room upstairs, the coaching staff, between the five of us, I think there’s nine promotions from the Championship as players and coaches. There’s a lot of experience and knowhow, which is really good.
“Then, along with Matt and Nathan, it’s great, and there’s a lot of regular dialogue in terms of trying to build that squad, which is going to be the most important bit of work, bar none.”
On getting recruitment right
“Ultimately, the players are the ones that go over the line and do it, so it is important that we get that bit right. The culture is really important. We need good people – people that want to be here and make a difference and play for the football club. Of course, we want good players, but they’ve got to care, and they’ve got to want to be here and help the football club respond in the right way and try to get back to where we believe we should be – but you’ve got to earn it.
“There are players in the dressing room now that we’re getting on really well with, that we like and they've been performing well, that we’d be keen to keep here. We are in control of a lot of those situations, but also, sometimes, if bigger or other opportunities come along that players really want to explore, then we have to see. But what I would say is any decision that we make has got to be right for the football club. There will be a lot of change, but we want to try and keep players that want to be here and that we think are very good players as well because we want to be strong.
“We’ve spoken about it a lot, and the process was started in January and there’s been a lot of hard work going on to make sure that we’re in a really good position come this summer to try and be aggressive and do things as early as possible. We won’t be able to do that in every individual case, because there’s always a lot of parties involved in a deal, but every meeting that we have with Matt Jackson and Nathan, everyone is on board that we want to try and act as early as possible to give us the best chance to get to work with the group in pre-season.
“It is a World Cup summer, so there will be some people away, but as best as possible, we’d love to be working with a group that gets us ready to attack and be on the front foot as quickly as we can next season.”
