As the bell tolls, Kieran McGeeney is already seated and primed. It's nearly a month since his retirement but as the breakfast menu arrives he remains decisive and frighteningly familiar.

Toast . . . brown. One omelette . . . without the bacon of course.

One green tea. One cranberry juice. You can't but feel slovenly when eating across from Kieran McGeeney.

You know you are a manager now, not a player?

"Still, I think if you follow the 80-20 rule you can't go wrong in life. If you are training well and eating well 80 per cent of the time then the other time is there to do what you want and it keeps you sane and keeps you happy.

As for the tea, I like ordinary tea too, I just happen to like herbal tea better."

And the fruit, still spending 30 every other day?

"Ah yeah, I'm still gulping down the fruit, I find ways. It's a wee bit harder because I am out and about the whole time but sure there are smoothies and things like this to make sure I keep it up. But look, contrary to popular belief I'm not all about this stuff. I smile the odd time. People say I was never smiling there in Croke Park but my family have pictures of me smiling at home, it just happens to be at a different time, away from football more often than not.

I just happen to take my football seriously."

Only now his football comes in managerial portions. It was the week of the All Ireland final McGeeney decided to hand back his Armagh jersey. It was hoped the timing would let the most influential footballer of a generation slip quietly into the night while the next generation prepared for September's showpiece. But with northern counties lying idle, that was never going to happen. Since Joe Kernan's departure earlier in the summer, it was widely speculated Paul Grimley would take over his native county, bringing McGeeney on board in an assistant capacity. When Grimley resigned as assistant manager in Cavan, his homecoming parade looked organised. Then Peter McDonald got the Armagh job and McGeeney retired.

A link?

"That's what happens when you don't talk about something. People make their own story up. I had my own reasons for not continuing to play and they are private.

Peter knows how much I think of him as a person and as a manager and all I could say is that he's what Armagh needs and is perfect for that job. He will get them back to the basics. You have to understand it was very difficult for me to walk away as a player.

Maybe that shows you the lack of other things in my life but I would say it was the most difficult thing I ever had to do. I have known nothing but Armagh football. I just didn't think it was the best thing for Armagh football for me to continue.

"Physically, I think I could continue, yet it was about the team. But if people don't know something they should come and ask me and if I don't want to tell them, they should not be making up things based on second-hand information. It all goes to prove we are playing in a professional sport."

It wasn't long after people expected McGeeney to dip his toes in the lukewarm waters of Armagh that he dived straight into the ice bath of Kildare, a county that has won four games of Leinster football in the last four seasons and have been bundled miserably out of each of those qualifiers by Louth, Derry, Sligo and Offaly. Last season they failed to show up against Meath in their opening game, pulled out of a number of 50-50 challenges against their arch-rivals of just a decade ago and ended up losing by six points to 14 men.

In the aftermath of that game younger members of the panel were seen in nightclubs asking various patrons if they knew who they were.

Back on the field, though, nobody did and against Louth in front of their home fans in Newbridge, having been second-best throughout, they somehow found themselves just a goal down in the closing stages. Yet still they looked disinterested and again lost by six. John Crofton resigned and many of that team saw a third manager walk away frustrated.

"I don't think I will become frustrated. If the players don't want to push themselves to better things sure they will probably not be there. Besides, everything seems right about this job.

Some people said maybe I should go into club management first and maybe they are wrong, maybe they are right. It's just all the arrows pointed here. I knew I wanted to keep clear of Ulster because of Armagh. The GAA is still very parochial in Ulster and there seems to be a huge problem if you move anywhere. When I moved to [Na Fianna in] Dublin and away from the home club people found it very difficult to deal with.

"Then Syl [Merrins, Kildare County Board Chairman] approached me and we talked and I liked what he said and vice versa and he really wants a lot for Kildare football. You will have other people mentioning reasons for me going to Kildare and I don't mind mentioning them because everyone talks about money. I have a helicopter down there and some Sheikh Mohammed is going to buy me a nice house. But we all get into football for the one reason and that is to have success. And I think that's possible here.

"I met the players Tuesday and sitting in front of me, I know there were good players, there were top-level players, there were very committed and dedicated players and I am sure they will have been disappointed with the way things have gone. But it's not one thing that has gone wrong. That is not losing. It is an amalgamation of hundreds of little things because everyone does their fitness training and their shooting practice. I've been fortunate to play under some great managers in Peter McDonald and Paul Caffrey at club level, Dessie Ryan with Queen's, Joe Kernan and Paul Grimley and Brian McAlinden and I hope to take something from them and add something myself and pass that on. As for passing things on I learned as a player? Nobody knows what it takes to be the best. You can never explain to somebody. If I am talking about desire, it's very easy for someone to sit there and say, 'I know what you mean', but they don't.

They cannot. Until you go through the pain and that wee voice in the back of your head is screaming at you to stop but you won't. Well, until then you will not know what desire is. Whether some players put in more to cover for their weaknesses, that's another thing. But the team as a whole has to put in the work and I can't explain, it does not come from one or two nights' training a week.

It's a lifestyle choice. It's up to them now if they want to make that choice."

The players that first get to make that lifestyle choice?

Well, he reckons the panel won't change much because his predecessors must have picked the best players that were available. Having played against many of those same players in the league over recent seasons, he reckons they are fit, athletic and never niggled although he's still not sure if the latter is a good thing. Having watched the videos of last season's outings, he reckons there are areas they can improve on.

And as for goals?

"Yeah, I've got goals."

Care to share them?

"Nof I remember talking about goal-setting before and another person decided to have a swipe at me and say I must have thought I was the head of some international conglomerate. But goals are something you have to control so whatever goals I set I am able to control. They have to revolve around the structures I set and the way I react to situations. The players therefore have to set their own goals.

"I hope we have a bit of craic too and a part of playing football is that we all enjoy it and I don't want to take that away and players coming to training saying, 'Shit, I don't want to be here.' But there is going to be a lot of hard work.

We are going to try and do as much with the football because contrary to what people believe in Armagh we didn't spend all that time in the gym doing all these pullups and press-ups. We were doing two 40-minute gym sessions a week but sure we were spending three or four hours doing other stuff. If that same work-rate and desire is here, I think Kildare can be winners. I have three years starting now to do that."

If the players survive recruit training, we don't doubt him.