Wolves are to make an official approach to Middlesbrough to make Rob Edwards their next head coach. The Premier League’s bottom club are long-standing admirers of Edwards, previously a player and coach at the club.

Boro are reluctant to lose Edwards, who joined the Riverside club on a three-year contract in the summer. The club stand third in the Championship following Tuesday’s draw at Leicester and last Saturday’s defeat by Watford.

Those results saw Boro slide out of the top two and they are now one point behind Stoke amid increasing speculation linking Edwards with the vacant head coach role at Molineux after Vítor Pereira was sacked on Sunday.

Edwards had a short spell in caretaker charge in 2016, shortly after Fosun, Wolves’ owners, bought the club. Wolves would have to pay Boro compensation to extract Edwards from his contract.

Wolves had agreed terms with Gary O’Neil only to see their former manager withdraw himself from the process on Monday. Saturday’s 3-0 defeat at Fulham left Wolves with just two points from 10 games.