Gary Neville on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer: 'He will not accept interference from Cardiff City owner Vincent Tan'

Former United right-back not surprised Solskjaer is managing in the division

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (right) and Cardiff City owner Vincent Tan (GETTY IMAGES)

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will not accept interference from Cardiff City owner Vincent Tan, according to former Manchester United team-mate Gary Neville.

Solskjaer has his first Premier League match as manager on Saturday, in the crucial fixture against fellow strugglers West Ham, and Neville says that a repeat of the 'unsavoury' public ending to Malky Mackay's tenure at the Cardiff City Stadium will not be tolerated.

"What I know about Ole Gunnar Solskjӕr is that he’s studious, he’s intelligent and he’s clever," Neville said.

"Knowing him as an individual, he’ll have everything squared off at his end to make sure that he’s able to manage the club in absolutely the way that he wants to, and I’m sure that he won’t accept any interference."

Neville says that it is no surprise that Solksjaer has returned to the Premier League as manager, after a spell as United reserve team boss and then Molde manager in his native Norway.

Gary Neville (right) with Manchester United team-mate Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in 2006 (GETTY IMAGES)

"He was the kind of player that would write down all the training sessions when he was coming towards the end of his career. Even after he had retired and moved up to coaching, I used to see him around the club all the time… I remember one time him playing a game in a reserve team match and him saying he’s playing a 4-2-2-2 system, I was thinking: I’ve never heard of that before! Two midfield players in front of a back four then two in front of that and two in front of that! How’s that going to work? Who is going to move wide?"

Gary Neville was speaking as he laced up his boots again to join EA SPORTS FIFA Ultimate Team Legends. Find out how he would go about facing two current legends, Messi and Ronaldo, by watching this exclusive video interview (http://bit.ly/JKgh8q). Read his fortnightly column at (http://bit.ly/1fiBWTl).