Wolves stunned the football community earlier this week by sacking Rob Edwards – and Cesar Peixoto is set to replace him.
Edwards was relieved of his duties on Wednesday after some rumblings the day before about him being replaced.
It was a brutal outcome for Edwards, as he had been in all the media for Wolves’ signings of Kieran Trippier and Raul Jimenez, and had regularly spoken about his plans for the new season.
Could Wolves’ messy sacking of Rob Edwards now derail the club’s summer and promotion bid? 🤔
Both players and staff were blind-sided by the decision with plenty left unhappy… 😳
But Guo Guangchang pulled the plug, and Cesar Peixoto will be the man to replace him.
He’s been one of the most promising young coaches in Portugal over the last year, but how can we read into his 2025/26 season at Gil Vicente?
Cesar Peixoto’s numbers at Gil Vicente
The headline number for Peixoto’s 2025/26 season is the position they came in the league. Despite being one of the smallest clubs in the Primeira Liga, Gil Vicente finished sixth in the table in the season just gone.
They won 13 of their 34 games, drawing 11 and losing 10. Their 47 goals scored and 38 conceded gave them a final goal difference of plus nine.
As per FotMob, for goals per match, they averaged 1.4 per 90, giving a ranking of joint-sixth.
For goals conceded per match, they averaged 1.1 per 90, which ranked them sixth.
Their average possession was 49.8%, which puts them in the middle of the pack in terms of the league. By comparison, Wolves’ was 42.7% in 2025/26 (18th).
Gil Vicente’s 12 clean sheets was the fifth-best in the league.
There are a couple of particularly eye-catching statistics which may give an indication as to the kind of identity Peixoto will seek to establish at Wolves.
Gil Vicente ranked second for goals scored from set-pieces last term. They scored 17, which was just one behind champions FC Porto.
And they were third for accurate long balls per match with 23.4 per 90. This may well suggest we’ll see lots of switches of play.
The set-piece metric is certainly quite interesting, as this has not been a particularly strong area for Wolves for some time.
Clearly there has been some creativity and invention at Gil Vicente under Peixoto.
So potentially, the likes of Kieran Trippier and Tommy Doyle could be key players for the new manager, as he tries to get Wolves moulded in his image as quickly as possible.
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