Going into management too young?

I'm 2 and a half years into the game and I've noticed alot of players retiring very early to go into management. Joey Barton is 30 and managing as is Shaun Wright-Phillips at 31. Surely they's still be playing? Or player manager?

Perhaps injury ruined their careers? Who are they managing out of interest?

Nope they were released by their clubs and no one took them on and within 6 months they had staff attributes and were managing. Joey Barton is at Leicester who are Championship and Wright-Phillips with Wolves, who are top 6 prem Incidently, the Wolves manager left when they were top at Xmas for Burnley, who are bottom half Championship!

I've not played long enough into FM11 to see this, but I saw the same thing happening on FM10 - lots of well-known players retiring and becoming managers around 30/31/32. Not a huge issue, but it does seem like something which should be tweaked.

Nope they were released by their clubs and no one took them on

I think you just answered your own question mate. It's quite common for players the wrong side of 30 to hang up their boots if noone offers them a contract. Even for a footballer (actually, especially for a footballer) 6 months without any income or job and they'd probably go mental. It's just a way for them to stay in the game. It'd probably depend on their personality too, for example, a driven player probably wouldn't give up looking for a team, but an evasive player for example may give up and go into coaching/management!