Some of the wisest words I ever heard about football management came from Alex Smith, then the manager of Aberdeen, and today an eminence grise of our football scene.

"If you want to make it as a manager, start at a club away from the spotlight, where you can make your mistakes out of sight - and learn from them," said Smith.

He cited to me Jim Jefferies as a classic example. Jefferies actually began his career at Gala Fairydean, then moved to Berwick Rangers, by which time he had made a load of mistakes, few of them reported in the press.

By the time Jefferies went on to manage Falkirk, Hearts, Bradford City and Kilmarnock he had built up a load of experience and authority. But his early "hidden days" were the making of him.

With Ian Murray arriving as the new St Mirren manager this week, I've been thinking again about Alex Smith's words. Because this current crop of Scottish managers are among the youngest the top-flight has ever seen.

This is true, isn't it? Everyone says so.

When I spoke recently to Peter Houston, a Scottish Cup final manager this Saturday at Hampden, he surprised me by noting the reduced age of football managers in Scotland.

"I might be wrong but, after Dick Campbell [61] at Forfar and Paul Hegarty [60] at Montrose, I think I'm the third oldest manager in the league, at 56," Houston told me. "Management in Scottish football is a younger man's game now."

But is it? Here are the ages of the current Scottish Premiership managers:

Ronny Deila: 39

Derek McInnes: 43

John Hughes: 50

Tommy Wright: 51

Jackie McNamara: 38

Pau Hartley: 38

Martin Canning: 33

Alan Archibald: 37

Jim McIntyre: 43

Gary Locke: 39

Ian Baraclough: 44

Ian Murray: 34

Put all that together, and the average age of the managers in Scotland's top league is 41. This is young, but not exactly colt-like.

Two of them - Martin Canning at 33 and Ian Murray at 34 - are obviously exceptionally youthful. Jackie McNamara was handed the Dundee United job when he was 39. Paul Hartley landed the Dundee job when he was 37.

In appointing Ronny Deila last June, Celtic appeared to take a significant risk. The unknown Norwegian knew little about Scottish football, and was 38 when he landed the Celtic job.

There is a trend here, there is no doubt. Young managers, partly out of Scottish football's economic necessity, are being given their chance.

That said, some surprising names from history reveal that we perhaps make too much of youth being given its head in Scottish football management today.

Billy McNeill was 38 when he became manager of Celtic in 1978. Jock Wallace - unbelievably it seems now - was only 36 when Rangers made him manager in succession to Willie Waddell in 1972.

Sir Alex Ferguson was 32 when he was appointed the St Mirren manager in 1972, and still just 36 when Aberdeen made him manager in June, 1978.

Jim McLean had just turned 34 when he was appointed the Dundee United manager in 1971.

The evidence seems equally clear: Scottish football has always been willing to hand gifted young managers the reins. It is not just a phenomenon of this current, financially-depressed age.

It might also be significant that, at aged 50 and 56, the two managers contesting the Scottish Cup final this weekend are among the most experienced currently on the Scottish scene.

John Hughes was roundly trounced by many - me included - when Caley Thistle surprisingly appointed him as their new boss in December 2013. But in everything he has done so far Hughes has made his experience count.

As for Houston, at 56 he is almost made out to be an old man on the scene, at the same time as Dick Advocaat, 11 years his senior, is being begged by Sunderland to stay and work into next season and beyond.

You only need to be around Houston - talk to him, hear his ideas, his convictions, his sense of the game - to know that with experience comes great football know-how.

That can become wooden or dated in time. But, channelled properly, wisdom is a fine thing in football. Managers have shown it again and again.

I doubt it is also a mere coincidence that, with the oldest manager in the division, St Johnstone have just completed another terrific season under Tommy Wright.

Maybe we are not as driven down the road of youthful managers as we had thought. They have always been here. Age is a factor, but so, too, is raw ability.