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Former Manchester United players Wayne Rooney and Rio Ferdinand predicted that new caretaker boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer would become a 'top coach' when he was reserve team manager at the club.

Solskjaer retired after an 11 year playing career at United, before becoming the club's reserve team manager for a two year period.

The Norwegian then won two league titles and a cup at Molde before an ill-fated spell at Cardiff in 2014. He returned to Molde in 2015 and will resume his role as manager when the Premier League season finishes next May.

A fan favourite at Old Trafford, Solskjaer was also popular with former teammates, who spoke in glowing terms about his coaching abilities.

Solskjaer's time at United overlapped with Cristiano Ronaldo's spell at the club, and the five-time Balon d'Or winner said at the time that he was a 'very good' coach.

He told TV2: "He’s very good. I look for Ole like a man, not just coach now. He’s a fantastic guy and I have a great relationship with him."

Rooney and Ferdinand were also asked for their views on Solskjaer, and the pair predicted big things for their former teammate-turned-coach.

"I’m sure he will one day become a manager and become a good one," Rooney said.

While Ferdinand joked the players had no respect for Solskjaer, saying: "None, we don’t like him. We think he’s a bad guy and he can’t coach.

"Nah, he’s a good guy. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is a fantastic ambassador for football.

"I’m sure he’ll go on to become a top coach as well because he has great ideas about the game and he’s working very hard at Carrington."

At United, Solskjaer won 16 of his 25 matches in charge of the reserve side, drawing five and losing just four times with a points per game average of 2.12.

Overall in his managerial career, the new caretaker manager has a 53% win rate across his 296 games with a record of W159 D53 L84.