Former Nottingham Forest and Manchester City boss Frank Clarke believes experienced managers are discarded too quickly.

This week, Arsenal's Arsene Wenger celebrates his 60th birthday but Clark believes the trend for appointing younger men - often former players - to high-profile jobs is not always the best option.

"Some managers may be perceived as too old or past it and yet would still make a very valuable contribution to a football club but there are only 92 [clubs]," the vice-chairman of the League Managers' Association said. "There is no doubt people are discarded too early - there is a massive wastage of knowledge in football.

"A lot of people who have this wealth of experience can be used in some of capacity; as a mentor helping younger managers or in executive positions at clubs advising directors, who basically know very little about the game.

"It doesn't seem to happen for some reason. There aren't many ex-technical people in any kind of capacity above the role of manager."

Clark reports the LMA and the English Football Association are looking into ways of using former managers as mentors but accepts the idea of having an experienced man come into a club is not readily welcomed by younger managers.

"We have to educate the younger managers about the value of mentoring," he added. "A lot of these younger managers are probably paranoid about having a wise old head sitting around the club in case it costs them their job. They may be looking over their shoulders a little bit. It is an educational problem. We need to educate the whole game from top to bottom of the possible values of having these elder statesmen trying to help."