West Bromwich Albion boss Roy Hodgson has questioned whether Andre Villas-Boas can handle the expectations at Chelsea.
Hodgson - who takes West Brom to Stamford Bridge today - had been a manager for 16 years before getting his first major job.
But Villas-Boas, 33, has been a club boss only since 2009.
Hodgson, 64, warned: "When you're at the Chelsea level, it's easy to come downwards.
"But it's not so easy to go upwards from Chelsea. We all know the instances of hiring and firing get greater every year, it doesn't actually decrease.
"Looking at the League Managers' Association reports is frightening when you see the average tenure of managers and coaches at clubs. I don't know that I would be pushing people as early as possible into top managerial positions if their aim is to have a 35-year career.
"Realistically speaking, you're going to need quite a lot of clubs if you're going to work that long. It's not easy to go downwards if you've been at the very top. You want to stay at that level.
"If I had a young player who was stopping his career my advice would be to play for as long as you can and do as much apprenticeship as you can before stepping into the big-time.
"It's not always easy to get 30 years once you're in there. It's a good thing to start young if you're lucky enough to survive into your 60s.
"But I don't know that starting in your 30s is the best way to do that. I've been lucky and enjoyed it. I suppose I'm the last person to talk about being a young manager.
"When I was 33 I'd just won my second championship in Sweden.
"But I was doing it at a club called Halmstad that no one had ever heard of. The players were part-time professionals."
