Sir Alex Ferguson says that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has given himself the best possible chance of surviving the perils of football management. The Manchester United manager has given the Norwegian his chance by putting him in charge of the reserve team this season.

Ferguson has always viewed the Norwegian as management material, believing him to be the 'best watcher of a game' he has come across. And while the Scot would not go so far as to say Solskjaer will be a success, he does feel he has made the best possible start.

"The situation today is that you get some potentially good young managers in the game and six matches later they can be out of a job," Ferguson said. "That tells you something about the knee-jerk reaction of football today. It shows the pressure of the press and how directors react to a couple of bad results.

"It is very difficult to say where people are going to be in two weeks' time, let alone two years. And I certainly would not want to talk about what is likely to happen at this club. It is not my domain. But I do know Ole is doing exactly the right things if he wants to stay in the game."

Now 66, Ferguson began planning for his own coaching career four decades ago and while the game has changed markedly since then, he does not feel the philosophy required to be a top manager has. "There are many handicaps in being a coach and it is a challenging job," he said. "But what you must do is create an enjoyable working environment for yourself and your players. For that you need enough time to lay out a vision for the future.

"It is worthwhile because then you can create a team ethic and be completely satisfied the players are all expressing themselves the way you want them to. You want to look at a team and you see yourself. The secret of management is to allow individualism to appear but accept the team comes first. Having outstanding observation is essential.

"I make the point to all our subs that when they sit on the bench they have to think about Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. He used to take notes on training sessions, which shows his keenness to learn the game. Now he is taking his badges, which is important.

"To go into this particularly hazardous job is not easy. You need to give yourself the best chance possible. There is no point going into management if you are short of knowledge or organisational ability or short of vision in terms of coaching. Ole is going the right way and I respect him for that."