Still the message comes across loud and clear. This season might be about preserving Dunfermline's SPL status, but the highly-rated young manager didn't spurn job opportunities in Holland and England because he longed for an annual battle against relegation in Scotland.

"I'm not one for grandiose statements, but there is no point being involved in this game to be perennial strugglers. There has to be some realism, but you don't want to put limits on what you can achieve, " he said. "Dunfermline is a good job to get.

Okay, it doesn't seem so now when you come in and you start off three points adrift at the bottom of the league.

Why would that be attractive? But it is because I see it as a club with a fair degree of potential that has been through lean times in the last couple of years. It is a challenge to take over Dunfermline in the situation they are in and turn it around.

But it is something that is manageable."

Kenny has just turned 35 and has already been in management for eight years. For instance at Longford Town he took them into the top flight and into Europe within the first three years of his managerial career. The man himself is painfully reticent about dwelling on past achievements. "Self-praise is no praise at all, " he said.

In 2004 Derry City were relegation candidates in the Eircom League Premier Division. Under Kenny they were twice pipped for the title on the final day of the season.

The Candy Stripes also got to within 90 minutes of the group stages of the Uefa Cup this season, beating two-time winners IFK Gothenburg home and away, thrashing Gretna, and then holding Paris Saint-Germain to a draw at the Brandywell before finally being outclassed in France.

Already there are double training sessions in place at the club's Pitreavie base and it is clear he sees fitness as one key area he can immediately get to work on. "I think everybody should be in the optimum physical condition to fulfil their potential. As elite athletes they should be in supreme condition, " he said.

With former manager Jim Leishman having moved back upstairs as director of football, Kenny may well be wise to leave some things unsaid.

But he is honest enough to point out he has not found things behind the scenes exactly as he would like them.

"There is a good squad here, but the injury list is unusually long and you have to ask questions why that is so, " he said. "I wonder whether players have maybe been rushed back, without having a full rehabilitation, and then they've broken down again.

Take Phil McGuire, he's broken down twice. Now, although I could have done with him for the game against Kilmarnock, I didn't play him."

While he is new to the SPL, he doesn't believe survival will necessitate Dunfermline "kicking" their way out of trouble. His footballing philosophy is to play with width and with the ball on the deck, but he is as much a pragmatist as a idealist. And the challenges are coming thick and fast.

"We have Celtic at home and then we have three games against St Mirren, Inverness and Motherwell.

After those, we'd still have half a season left to go, but the short-term target is to have improved to such a level that we perform really well in those matches. If we preserve our status this year . . . or rather when we do . . . it will give me a platform to really see through my ideas and push this club on."

He sounds confident, albeit quietly so. Yes, he gives that aura alright. Quiet confidence.