This is how another Association did it:

Not saying successfully, as they've proved nothing yet, but interesting that Croatia blooded potentially good managers / ex-players with the U21s first.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/6032157.stm

Don Givens. :eek:

Not much difference between that way and promoting Brian Kerr.

It has always struck me that a sensible idea would be to have the U21 manager being an up & coming manager who will progress to the senior team either as assistant or the main job, we expect the players to progress that way so why not use he U21's as a way of grooming potential future managers?
Kerr's underage development role was very different, managing the U21's involves the same principles as the senior team as the majority of the side are currently based in the UK but given the increasing importance of the EL to the underage sides it would mean when the U21 manager progressed to the senior team he should have a better understanding of the strenghts of the EL players too.