The former England midfielder has known some tough times whilst managing Manchester City, Sunderland and now United.
But the situation he found himself in over the past few days must surely rank as the toughest of all.
Yet he declared in The Sun: “There is always pressure on managers and my philosophy is that, if you can’t stand the heat, then get out of the kitchen.
“And as far as I’m concerned, I’m still cooking on gas!”
He added: “Of course I knew just how difficult this job was when I took it on. But I’m not moaning about that, it’s just the way it is and I’m going to get on with it.
“We’ve only got five points from seven games so far and that’s simply not good enough.
“But I’ve got every confidence in the players I have here that they can go out and do well.
“We’ve got the players and they need to be able to show consistency.
“The last thing we need is another performance like the one we put in at Everton. And I think it will be a win for us against Blackburn.
“Right now, the most important thing is getting down to football matters again. It’s what happens on the pitch that really counts.
“I want a vast improvement on our display at Goodison, we owe that to the fans more than anything else.”