At a time when the working world is turning its back on older members of society, Premiership chairmen are falling over themselves to welcome football's elderly managers back into the fold.

The script for next season's title battle could easily have been filched from a number of years ago, such is the welter of experience at the disposal of the leading men.

In the black and white corner is the Father of the Premiership, Sir Bobby Robson, who has forgotten more about football than most people ever learn about it.

Expected to be at Newcastle for another two seasons, 69-year-old Robson is at an age when most people are enjoying nothing more strenuous than a daily battle with the greenfly.

Yet he continues to defy the doctors who told him in 1995 to retire after he underwent major surgery to cure cancer.

Robson's accession to the Newcastle throne underlines how clubs have begun to turn to experience rather than raw managers.

Ruud Gullit was the proverbial "personality" boss - appointed by Chelsea in 1996 on the strength of two years as a Blues player plus his pulling power.

Even the man he replaced, Glenn Hoddle, served a managerial apprenticeship at Swindon before moving to Chelsea and ultimately England.

But Gullit's weaknesses were laid bare at Newcastle, and it took the arrival of a man of Robson's experience and know-how to repair the damage done by the Dutchman.

So sullied was Gullit's reputation by his ill-fated time at Newcastle that no club have given him a managerial lifeline in almost three years.

Venables will celebrate his 60th birthday at the start of next year - a landmark that Sir Alex Ferguson, the most successful manager in English history, passed last season.

Gerard Houllier is 54, while Double-winning boss Arsene Wenger has a wealth of experience gleaned from managing in three countries, despite being a relative "baby" at 52.

Gianluca Vialli has been fired by Chelsea and Watford; David Platt failed to justify Nottingham Forest's decision to bring him in.

Even the Premiership's more youthful managers have earned their crack at football's big time the hard way.

Gary Megson, 43, has spent time at Blackpool and Stoke among others; 41-year-old Steve Bruce is in the top flight for the first time after spells with the likes of Sheffield United, Huddersfield and Wigan.

And David Moyes, the youngest of the lot at 39, was Preston boss for four years before Everton gave him his top-flight chance.

Indeed, Steve McClaren is perhaps the Premiership manager with the shortest CV when appointed - and working under Jim Smith and Ferguson left him fully prepared for the Boro job.