Given that his team need the points as desperately as Tottenham Hotspur, Sir Alex Ferguson made it clear that he would be in no mood to do Martin Jol any favours at Old Trafford tomorrow, but the Manchester United manager still had some strong words of support for his embattled counterpart, and some even stronger ones for the faceless corporate moneymen he blames for turning British football into a never-ending sack race.

Should United beat Tottenham, as Ferguson boldly predicted they would yesterday, it would not only revive the Barclays Premier League champions’ faltering start to the season but also increase the pressure on Jol, whose position has come under intense scrutiny this week after the club’s poor start to the campaign.

But Ferguson, who came close to appointing Jol as his assistant three years ago when Carlos Queiroz left to coach Real Madrid, believes that clubs are mad to get rid of their managers after only a few games. And he hopes that Daniel Levy, the Tottenham chairman, stands by his decision to back the Dutchman and not let himself be influenced by “the hangers-on” that he fears often wield an unhealthy influence at clubs.

“There’s a root to this quick criticism in football today,” the United manager said. “If you look at the corporate hospitality of football today, you go into some boardrooms and there’s only about four directors but 30 or 40 hangers-on. They [the hangers-on] are the ones who think they know everything and are the ones who are probably laying the seeds.

“When I first came here they used to call it the second board. They used to meet on Monday in the Grill Room [at Old Trafford] and discuss everything that happened on the Saturday and make their opinions known. That was the way.

“That happens at football clubs and that maybe is where the seed is sown. And so when somebody like Martin at a club with Tottenham’s expectations has a bad spell, the inevitable happens.”

It was 3½ years before Ferguson won his first trophy at United, the FA Cup in 1990, and more than six years before his team won the league, but the Scot is surprised that more clubs have not heeded the lesson that being successful more often than not requires patience. Jol has held the position of Tottenham manager outright only since November 2004.

“There have been managers sacked after four or five games at the start of the season and you say to yourself what are they [the clubs] doing,” Ferguson said.

“If you look at the situation I faced it’s similar. In the case of Martin this is only his third full season in charge. I don’t think it’s the right time [to be talking about being dismissed].

“You need plenty of time with a massive club like that to change it all around to win a championship. I don’t know how many times I have sat here over the years and supported managers under pressure because you know it’s not fair, but it doesn’t change.

“There’s no evidence that sacking a manager gets you success. If you take a line through longevity and look back to Brian Clough at Nottingham Forest, the length of time he was there brought good success. It’s worthwhile thinking about continuity with staff.”

Ferguson fears that British football is starting to follow the path trodden in Europe, where clubs regularly change managers.“I know it doesn’t apply to Europe, where you see continual changes there every second year, but we’re not Europe,” he said.

“It’s different in Britain. I think the British way of life is about stability and a stronger determination to do well so I don’t see the need to copy European ways. It’s disappointing sometimes that we seem to be.”

United will line up against Tottenham without Gary Neville, who has been ruled out for a further two weeks with a thigh strain, but Ferguson is confident that Edwin van der Sar, the goalkeeper, and Owen Hargreaves, the midfield player, will be fit, while Louis Saha and Anderson, the forwards, could figure from the bench.

Two draws and the 1-0 defeat by Manchester City last Sunday have left United playing catchup, but Ferguson appeared unfazed yesterday and has forecast a “tight” competition.

“You look at teams like Blackburn [Rovers] and Everton who have good continuity of managers and players and they are going to be tough opponents,” he said. “Newcastle [United] as well, so maybe there are going to be points dropped that we don’t expect.”