Middlesbrough head of football Kieran Scott has spoken candidly about the abrupt departure of former manager Rob Edwards and the impact his replacement, Kim Hellberg, has had on the club since arriving last November.

A surprise that stung

Edwards left Middlesbrough after just 14 or 15 Championship games of the 2025-26 season, with Boro sitting second in the table. He departed to manage a club elsewhere, drawn by what he described as a lifelong ambition. Scott made clear he did not see it coming.

"It was a bit of a surprise, I'm not going to lie," Scott told BBC Radio Tees. "I think we gave Rob and his staff a really good opportunity to kick-on with us. So to be dealing with a club approaching after 14-15 games, it was a little bit earlier than anticipated."

The timing made things worse. The approach came while Boro were in the middle of a 2-1 home win against Birmingham City, a detail Scott said "got under my nose".

"They didn't even allow us to finish the game," he said. "So that wasn't great. I guess that's football, but it felt a little bit unnecessary."

On his personal relationship with Edwards, a manager he had known and worked with for some time, Scott was blunt: "We're not best mates anymore and he definitely ain't coming for tea. I felt let down because I thought that ultimately the club gave him an opportunity."

Edwards himself acknowledged that he had let the club down but said he could not live with the regret of turning the opportunity down. Scott, for his part, appears to accept the reality of modern football even if the manner of the exit left a sour taste.

Why Hellberg won the job

Faced with replacing a manager who had just guided them to second place in the Championship, Scott and the Middlesbrough hierarchy moved quickly, settling on Hellberg, then a relatively little-known head coach who had been working in Sweden with Hammarby. Scott describes taking a chance on "a young guy no-one had ever heard of", but says a five-hour meeting with the 38-year-old convinced him.

"I knew straight away that this guy would fit Boro," Scott said.

What drew him in, specifically, was Hellberg's approach to attacking football. Scott believes Edwards had built a solid defensive unit but that some of Boro's forward players felt restricted under his system.

"The forward players welcomed a bit of freedom and a bit of fluidity and different styles of coaching," Scott said. "Kim came in and he made a really big difference and he freed up some of the players that were a little bit shackled."

What the numbers actually show

It is worth being precise here, because the data tells a nuanced story rather than a clean one. Across Hellberg's 30 regular-season Championship matches in charge, Boro have scored 52 goals at a rate of 1.73 per game. Under Edwards across the first portion of that same season, the rate was 1.21 goals per game. On that measure, Scott's claim about an improved attack holds up.

However, Hellberg's side have also leaked more. Boro conceded at a rate of 1.00 goals per game under the Swede, compared to 0.85 under Edwards. Edwards also edged it on points per game (the gap is 0.11 in his favour), and the win ratio across the two managers is dead level at 50%.

What that tells us is that Hellberg has made Middlesbrough a more open, more entertaining side in the Championship, but not necessarily a more efficient one in a straightforward sense. The attacking output is genuinely better; defensive solidity has dipped. Whether that trade-off is the right one for a club with promotion ambitions will be tested as the new season unfolds. We do not yet have enough of a sample under Hellberg to say with any confidence how those numbers will settle.

Looking ahead

Boro opened the current campaign with a 2-1 comeback win against Lincoln City, a result Scott and the club will hope signals intent. With Hellberg now having a full pre-season behind him and the squad tuned to his methods, Middlesbrough enter the new Championship year as one of the sides the market views as genuine promotion contenders.

Scott's willingness to reflect honestly on a difficult period, rather than gloss over the friction of Edwards' exit, suggests a degree of institutional self-awareness at the club. Whether Hellberg can convert promise into a top-two finish is the question that matters most now.

Frequently asked

Why did Rob Edwards leave Middlesbrough?
Edwards departed Middlesbrough after just 14 or 15 Championship games of the 2025-26 season, leaving to pursue what he described as a lifelong managerial ambition elsewhere. He acknowledged letting the club down but said he could not live with the regret of turning the opportunity away.
Who is Kim Hellberg and how has he done at Middlesbrough?
Kim Hellberg is a 38-year-old Swedish head coach who joined Middlesbrough from Hammarby after Edwards' departure. In 30 regular-season Championship matches he has overseen 52 goals scored (1.73 per game) and a 50% win rate, though his side have conceded slightly more than under his predecessor.
Are Middlesbrough promotion favourites for the 2026-27 Championship season?
According to head of football Kieran Scott, Middlesbrough are among the sides expected to challenge for promotion. They opened the new campaign with a 2-1 comeback win against Lincoln City, and the squad has now had a full pre-season under Hellberg's system.