Wolves Appoint Cesar Peixoto as Rob Edwards Era Ends
Wolves have moved decisively to replace Rob Edwards, reaching a full agreement with Gil Vicente head coach Cesar Peixoto to take charge at Molineux with immediate effect.
The club has yet to formally announce Edwards’ dismissal, but the decision is made. The hierarchy has already shaken hands on a deal with Peixoto, a coach pushed strongly by super-agent Jorge Mendes, whose influence at Wolves under owners Fosun remains as powerful as ever.
Edwards out after bruising relegation
Doubts over Edwards did not arrive with relegation. They started long before the final table confirmed Wolves’ fall.
Concerns first surfaced back in December, during his difficult early months in the job. Performances stuttered, results sagged, and while there was a spell of improvement, it never became a sustained revival. Wolves finished the campaign with just 20 points and three wins, slipping out of the Premier League with barely a fight.
That gentle slide jarred with the fanfare that greeted his appointment. Edwards had walked away from Middlesbrough amid controversy, leaving behind a brilliant start on Teesside to take charge of his hometown club. The move felt romantic. It was also risky.
Relegation seemed to many like part one of a longer plan: Edwards would rebuild in the Championship, shape the squad in his image and drive an immediate return. He certainly left his fingerprints on the club’s recruitment.
TEAMtalk understands Edwards played a central role in persuading Raul Jimenez to come back to Molineux and in pushing through the move for experienced defender Kieran Trippier. Those are not the decisions of a short-term caretaker. They are the moves of a man planning a project.
But projects need backing from the very top. Inside the boardroom, the landscape shifted.
New power, new direction
New executive chairman Nathan Shi has been keen to stamp his authority on the club. As the season unravelled, questions over Edwards’ suitability grew louder in private, even as he continued to front up in public.
Shi’s arrival has coincided with renewed dialogue with Mendes. Those conversations have gone beyond general strategy. They have shaped the identity of the next man in the dugout.
Mendes put forward Cesar Peixoto as a serious alternative, and Wolves listened. Initial talks quickly moved from exploratory to concrete. The club dug into Peixoto’s methods, his tactical ideas, and the way he had transformed a modest Gil Vicente side in Portugal.
What they heard convinced them.
Peixoto’s unlikely rise
At 46, Peixoto is a familiar name in Portuguese football. As a player he wore the colours of Benfica and Porto and represented Portugal at international level. On the pitch, he carried pedigree.
On the touchline, for a long time, he did not.
Until this year, his managerial career was largely unremarkable. Short spells at various clubs came and went without leaving much of a mark, his reputation hovering in that grey zone of promising but unproven.
Gil Vicente changed everything.
Under Peixoto, the club surged to an impressive sixth-place finish, the standout achievement of his coaching life so far. It was not a fluke run. It was a structured, coherent campaign that drew admiring glances from across Europe, including from Molineux.
Sources close to the situation say Wolves have been struck by the way Peixoto built a competitive side under difficult circumstances, operating without the resources enjoyed by Portugal’s giants yet still punching above their weight. His tactical approach, his adaptability and his capacity to organise a team have all been heavily praised inside the Wolves hierarchy.
They see him not as a finished article, but as an emerging coach with significant upside.
High stakes in the Championship
The timing is ruthless. Edwards is expected to be officially relieved of his duties imminently, his influence on recruitment and his emotional ties to the club not enough to survive the drop and the ambitions of a new chairman.
Wolves, relegated and under pressure, cannot afford drift. The Championship is unforgiving, and the expectation is clear: bounce back at the first attempt.
That responsibility now falls on Peixoto.
He inherits a squad in flux, a fanbase bruised by relegation and a board demanding promotion. The Portuguese coach arrives with momentum from his work at Gil Vicente and the backing of Mendes and Fosun.
Now comes the hard part: turning that faith into a team that can scrap, dominate and climb out of one of the toughest divisions in European football.
Wolves have made their choice. The question is whether Cesar Peixoto becomes the man who leads them back to the Premier League, or just the next name in a growing list of bold gambles.
