Down the line, a nice equation is already forming. Should Clare bypass Waterford in the first round of the Munster championship, they get a crack at Kerry in the semi-final. Nothing to lose for Clare. Nothing to gain for Kerry. A slight chance for Paidi to show what his own county missed out on. But a chance nonetheless.

Now, nobody is daft enough to suggest that Clare are about to become the Lazarus county of Munster football, but if anybody can pump life into a flailing carcass, then O Se is close to the top of that list. Of course, he was never going to be seriously considered for the Kerry job in any case.

He knew that, too. A few too many familiar faces linger on the Kerry county board.

But last Monday, as revealed on Radio Kerry's Terrace Talk programme, the desire to return as Kerry manager is always there.

He is, after all, a staunch Kerry man.

The strange thing is there wasn't a gaggle of other staunch Kerry men beating on the door of chairman Sean Walsh throughout the long weeks that passed since Jack O'Connor stepped aside. Names were slowly being eased away from any speculation linking them with the post. With Liam Kearns signed to Laois and Mick O'Dwyer's move to Wicklow ruling out any proposed partnership with Eoin Liston, willing candidates were incredibly thin on the ground. To put it bluntly, some wellplaced candidates wouldn't touch Kerry right now.

There are reasons of course, all acknowledged and accepted by O'Shea. Like Clare, some perceive Kerry as a flailing corpse.

The theory goes that they have reached their pinnacle and anybody willing to follow in the footsteps of Jack O'Connor needs their head checked. This time last year, an amount of work had been put in for the year ahead.

Now, Kerry are gearing up for a post-season holiday in Australia with a return date of mid-January. Eight of the panel can then potentially travel on the All Stars trip to Dubai. They're without Seamus Moynihan and Michael McCarthy for sure.

Question marks hang over the availability of Declan O'Sullivan for the upcoming season and one or two others may still decide to call it a day. Then there's the second season syndrome to be faced by Kieran Donaghy and plenty are wondering if Darragh O Se can pull another season out of the bag like the one that has just passed.

And it's not just managerial candidates who are taking this bigger picture into consideration. When O'Shea was confirmed as manager later on Wednesday, it surprised many that he failed to name a backroom team. "It isn't just possible managers, but it looks like Kerry selectors are really thinking twice before getting involved as well, " said one former Kerry player. "Pat would have no problem finding two or three men willing to come in as selectors, but it's finding lads with the right pedigree . . . the ability to make the hard calls on days like the Munster final . . . who want to get involved."

There's also the problem of the Kerry public and their ravenous, misguided appetite for success. They've been reared on a feast of good times. Gluttony is their downfall. Jack O'Connor, the most successful manager in modernday football, wasn't even exempt from the bile of the Kerry mob. Relations soured to a new low last summer after Kerry lost to Cork in the Munster final.

Candidates have never been more aware of what lies ahead should the road contain a few too many twists.

"Even the prospective managers fear the wrath of the Kerry public, " says Mickey Ned O'Sullivan, current Limerick manager who followed the great O'Dwyer management dynasty in Kerry.

"I was there at a different time but they still had a cut at me. And according to some of the lads who have been in the job since then, it's got worse. Fellas know now that even their reputations as members of the community can be affected."

O'Sullivan doesn't subscribe to the notion that Kerry, on the back of three All Ireland finals on the trot, are a spent force. "Just look at the bench and you'll see how strong it is. I know we'd take the whole Kerry bench and put them on the Limerick panel, no problem. You're only losing two or three players. Last year I lost a dozen and I could lose another half of the team this year due to lads retiring.

In Kerry, if a couple of lads go, they think it's the end of the world."

Kerry's last game also stands as an overbearing yardstick of what's expected. The team delivered an almost perfect performance in September's All Ireland and yet it was greeted with relatively muted celebration. In Kerry, when the Sam Maguire is secured for the winter, it just means the world is turning at the correct speed once more. Had Kerry failed to capture the crown, then the gaggle at Walsh's door would have been heard all around the county. In O'Sullivan's opinion, the manner of the hunt for O'Connor's successor also dictated that not too many Kerry men would allow themselves go forward for consideration.

"The vibes went out straight away that Sean Walsh and the county board wanted Pat O'Shea, " he says. "That's part of the reason why some of the other lads didn't put their names forward.

They knew they had no chance of getting it. That's my interpretation. A lot of the lads capable of doing the job tested the waters to see what would happen and they saw straight away that there was only one name thrown out and obviously the county board had no one else in mind. So why should they put their head above the parapet and allow themselves be castigated?"

Football in Kerry brings scrutiny to a whole new level. Everything to lose, only normality to restore. As he was welcomed by his new family in Clare on Thursday afternoon, perhaps Paidi O Se was for once basking in the relative anonymity his new post brings.