McClaren received a telephone call from FA chief executive Brian Barwick yesterday morning, less than 12 hours after England's crushing home defeat to Croatia, which saw them dumped out of Euro 2008 at the qualifying stage.

Although he accepts a stay of execution would probably have made no difference to McClaren's job prospects, at a time when managers are getting sacked virtually every week, Ferguson feels the FA have failed to set an example for the rest to follow.

"It was hasty," said the Manchester United manager.

"England do not have a game until February, so why make a decision over a bacon butty at 8.30am. To me that is not right.

"Obviously, the outcome in a week's time would have been the same but they could have waited.

"Some clubs are making knee-jerk reactions every day. Someone needs to set a standard for how to behave and that, coming from the people who are running the game in this country, doesn't do much good."

Ferguson has remained close to McClaren since the pair worked together at United and has no doubt the former Middlesbrough manager will bounce back from the devastating blow of losing a job he cherished.

While he does not buy into the belief the players were simply not up to the task, Ferguson does feel McClaren's successor will have an onerous task on his hands.

"It is becoming a near-impossible job," he admitted.

"The expectations are not too high but the intensity of the media is.

"But there is no point in saying everything is wrong. There are some good players about, who are good enough to have a decent future.

"The first thing I thought about on Wednesday was the state of the pitch. The FA have spent £800million on a stadium and they didn't give the boys a chance.

"Croatia weren't bothered whether they were playing on a paddy field or a mountain of snow but it wasn't fair on the England lads, or the groundsman for that matter.

"Then, the backbone of the team had gone. When you lose important players like Rooney, Owen, Ferdinand and Terry it puts a terrible strain on the confidence of the other players.

"Whenever they made a mistake they had no-one to get them through.

"Steve will bounce back. He is not the only person who has been sacked. We have all had that."

Ferguson refused to enter into a debate over McClaren's likely successor, although he was quick to state it would not be him.

Indeed, his initial reaction to England's loss when he faced the media was "great result", although the observation was delivered in jest.

However, having sat next to the legendary Jock Stein, then managed Scotland during the 1986 World Cup following the former Celtic manager's untimely death, Ferguson feels it is a job for a man with experience.

"Steve is only young and I told him that at the time," said Ferguson.

"It is difficult for a young manager taking an international job. You have to make yourself busy enough to feel like your energy is being used in the right way.

"I always felt Jock Stein was the perfect age to be an international manager.

"His experience and record could be rolled out in front of everyone and he had such a great presence."

Sadly Ferguson believes the trigger point for England's present ills, the dearth of schools football, is beyond the remit of the FA.

One thing is for sure though, the FA can expect little assistance from the top clubs over the number of foreigners within their squads.

Ferguson has often made his annoyance at the present academy system known. And he maintains it only exacerbates the problem.

"You have to do what is right for your football club," he said.

"I have said this time and time again but I don't think the academy regulations support the idea of going out to get a team of English boys.

"Manchester United is restricted to finding players within 90 minutes' travel. That is wrong.

"To ask us to produce teams to excel in European football under a parochial system is too much. So what do we do? We have to start going abroad.

"We have players from all over the world. Arsenal and Liverpool are doing the same. You cannot knock the clubs for doing that."