With boss Valerien Ismael fired after a bad run of results, the Horntes have turned to Cleverely.
"It shows the class that he has," he told the Manchester Evening News back in November about Sir Alex Ferguson helping him get into coaching.
"He was just checking up on me at first and then offering me advice, from a coaching perspective on a couple of things, which I think is how I like to coach, I don't like to overwhelm people with information but he gave me a couple of punchy tips. I try and implement them on a daily basis.
"It shows the class that he has," he told the Manchester Evening News back in November. "He was just checking up on me at first and then offering me advice, from a coaching perspective on a couple of things, which I think is how I like to coach, I don't like to overwhelm people with information but he gave me a couple of punchy tips. I try and implement them on a daily basis.
"When I came back down south was when I really got a passion for trying to improve players and improve people. So that's where the journey started.
"The standards that become second nature at United are what we strive for as an academy here. I've got really good academy management, who believe in the same things. Jimmy Gilligan actually worked close with Warren Joyce at Forest. I spoke to Paul McGuinness a little since I went into this side of things.
"I had a wide variety of managers. Some that I'll take a lot from, some little bits from, and some nothing from. I've been lucky really, obviously Sir Alex, I thought Marco Silva was top drawer. Nigel Pearson, Javi Gracia, whether one would put great training sessions on, one would give clear messages, one would have an unbelievable aura, one was a great man manager. I take a little bit from all of those."