Former Wolves stars set to face off in Molineux dugouts
Rob Edwards and Keith Andrews will be in the opposite dugouts at Molineux on Saturday afternoon. They were once team-mates in the Wolves dressing room. Their former manager and two team-mates look back.
For the first time, next summer’s World Cup will feature two former Wolves managers in charge of national teams with Stale Solbakken (Norway) and Julen Lopetegui (Qatar) heading across the pond.
And, for the first time in a long time this weekend, two former Wolves players will do battle as head coaches at Molineux, as Rob Edwards welcomes former team-mate and Brentford boss Keith Andrews.
In another world, were Wolves’ current league position not looking so dire, that would be something to celebrate. A former academy graduate in Andrews, and Shropshire-born ex-defender Edwards, going head-to-head in one of the toughest leagues in world football.
As it is, the atmosphere will not start as one of celebration. Far from it. A positive result for Wolves is a much bigger priority.
But it remains one of the rare occasions that two former Molineux men have locked horns in opposition dugouts.
The first time in the Premier League, and first since Graham Hawkins and Bobby Gould were in charge of Wolves and Coventry in the 1983/84 season.
Hawkins also took on Emlyn Hughes and Rotherham the previous season, and then you can head back to the 1960s and two of Wolves’ biggest legends – Stan Cullis and Billy Wright – in opposition for fixtures against Arsenal.
It was during the 2004/05 campaign that Edwards and Andrews overlapped at Wolves. Lee Naylor played at left-back, on many occasions alongside Edwards in the defence and with Andrews in midfield during that year. He has remained close to both ever since.
“Two different personalities but with the same goals,” is the Naylor assessment of his former dressing room colleagues. “They are both great lads, who have time for everyone, and want to give their time to people, even though that is pretty much impossible as a modern day manager.
“They understand people and they understand players, and have got that humility about them as well.
“If I was a player, I would love to play for both of them – they would make you feel a million dollars and you’d want to run through a brick wall for them.
“And I think it’s a credit to Wolves for the part the club played in their development.
“There is a little piece in both of them that will have come from their time at Wolves, and in what they have produced over the years since.”
Edwards, now 42, spent four years at Molineux as a player after being signed in the summer of 2004, chalking up 111 appearances in both central defence and at full-back.
Andrews, three years Edwards’ senior at 45, arrived at Wolves from Dublin as a 15-year-old, then coming through the academy system to make 72 first-team appearances before departing in 2005 at the age of 24.
Wolves boasted an excellent youth team at the time. A fair few Irish talents had crossed the sea, with Robbie Keane in the year above, and then the likes of Naylor, Matt Murray, Joleon Lescott and Adam Proudlock also emerging through to senior level from far closer to home.
“It was a time in all our lives that we will never forget,” Naylor continues. “Wolves were renowned as having one of the best youth teams in the country back then.
“So many brilliant footballers and so much talent, and you can see from how many went on to have unbelievable careers with some going into management, just how good it was.
“Keith was very much a part of that. A very good footballer, he loved getting on the ball and made a really positive impact.”
“He was very competitive and loved a tackle,” added former goalkeeper Murray. “He could also strike a really good ball.
“As well as the young lads in the Academy, Keith was close to Branchy (Michael Branch), and there are a lot of funny stories from them, but he’s a great lad.
