Football can be ruthless. Managers know that better than anyone. Results determine careers, and when performances fall short, dismissals are often inevitable. What should never be inevitable, however, is discovering you have lost your job through social media.
If reports are correct that Rob Edwards learned of his departure from Wolverhampton Wanderers via online speculation and EFL Championship before receiving formal confirmation from the club, then this is about far more than one manager’s dismissal. It is about respect. Or, more accurately, the growing lack of it in modern football.
Nobody is arguing that clubs should not make difficult decisions. Owners invest millions, supporters demand results and executives are paid to act in what they believe are the club’s best interests. Managers are hired knowing that dismissal is an occupational hazard. But there remains a basic standard of professional conduct that should apply regardless of league position, results or financial pressures.
That standard begins with a simple principle: people deserve to hear life-changing news directly.
To lose a job is significant enough. To lose it while scrolling through social media is humiliating. It strips away dignity and sends a damaging message not only to the individual concerned but to everyone watching. If a club cannot afford a private conversation before a public announcement, what does that say about its culture?
Football frequently talks about values. Clubs speak endlessly about family, community and respect. These words are prominently displayed in mission statements, marketing campaigns and executive speeches. Yet moments such as this reveal whether those values genuinely exist or are merely slogans designed for public consumption.
Managers are not disposable assets. They are human beings. They uproot families, relocate across the country, work relentlessly under intense scrutiny and carry responsibility for hundreds of employees, players and staff. Even when a manager has failed to meet expectations, that contribution deserves acknowledgement and basic courtesy.
The speed of the modern media cycle cannot be used as an excuse. Leaks happen. Journalists pursue stories. Social media accelerates information. None of this absolves clubs of their responsibility to communicate with their own employees first. In fact, the faster news travels, the more important it becomes to ensure that those directly affected hear it before the rest of the world does.
What makes situations like this particularly troubling is that they are becoming normalised. Increasingly, football seems willing to sacrifice decency for expediency. Decisions are managed according to communications strategies rather than human relationships. Public perception is prioritised ahead of personal respect.
Today’s victim may be a manager. Tomorrow it could be a player, a coach or a member of support staff. Once organisations accept that people can learn about their futures from anonymous sources and social media posts, they create a precedent that ultimately diminishes everyone.
Since when did HR departments abrogate their responsibilities to social media?
Rob Edwards may well have been the wrong man to take Wolves forward. Reasonable people can debate that. What should not be up for debate is the manner in which such decisions are communicated.
A football club has every right to change its manager. It does not have the right to forget its manners.
Before the statements, before the leaks and before the inevitable social media reaction, there should be a conversation. A phone call. A meeting. A moment of basic human decency.
That is not asking for much.
