United will face Sunderland this weekend.
Ferguson told Setanta Sports: “Roy and I have a good relationship and I still get plenty of texts off him.
“He has done great at Sunderland.
“He has the basic ingredients to succeed. He’s intelligent, strong-minded and can make a decision, which is a great start. What he does not have is experience and the time factor that would allow him to settle into the job. He did a fantastic job getting them up but he’s in the big pool now, swimming with sharks.
“I spoke to him several times about becoming a manager and he started taking his coaching badges while he was a player here. He asked me for advice once or twice when he first started.
“But I gave him the best advice before he left here. In this game there are a lot of things you can’t accept but you have to find a way around it because things change and it’s an emotional game.
“It’s important to understand the new money coming into football and the new type of owners and chairmen. New managers are integrated into all that but over the last few years I’ve seen things that, as a young man, I would have exploded at.
“I wouldn’t have accepted some of the things going on today but somehow you must have the patience to wait and use your experience at the right time. Jumping in as I would have done a few years ago would have created even more problems.”
