McLeish, who took charge at Ibrox today, made his name as a player under Ferguson at Aberdeen and still regularly asks his mentor for advice.

Ferguson said: ‘‘He has assets that don’t fall off the shelves these days. Alex is hugely inquisitive and has a deep desire to succeed at the highest level.

‘‘I speak to him quite a lot and he is always asking me how I did this or why I changed that.

‘‘This, allied to his desire to be as good as he can be at the business, mark him as someone with every chance of going all the way.’’

McLeish had been Advocaat’s choice of successor for similar reasons, with the Dutchman having taken note of McLeish when the latter was starting out as a manager at Motherwell.

McLeish had travelled to Holland to ask Advocaat’s advice and the PSV Eindhoven boss even managed to sell him a surplus player.

Ferguson, a former Rangers player, knows better than anyone how much of a culture shock it will be for McLeish to move from Hibernian to Ibrox.

But he insisted: ‘‘Of course, with Rangers playing second fiddle to Celtic at the moment the pressure will be all the greater but I don’t have any doubts that he will do very well.’’

Advocaat has admitted he is not certain he will enjoy his new role away from the dressing room but Ferguson reckoned that more and more clubs would follow suit.

He said: ‘‘I may be one of the last hands-on managers at this level who do everything. I have 40 people working for us at the academy and to be honest it is so big that it stretches beyond me at times.

‘‘Then there is the club’s in-house media; its TV, radio, clubcall, website, magazine and programme.

‘‘My own view is that United may take that step to have a general manager some day soon.’’

Ferguson is to step down at the end of the season to take on a less demanding ambassadorial role at United.