Davy Fitzgerald says he can see the same potential in Wexford as the Clare team he led to a surprise All-Ireland in 2013.
Clare, reinforced with Under-21 winners, won their first title since 1997 in the second of the Sixmilebridge man's five years in charge.
After calling it a day with his native county last September, Fitzgerald is now in the hot seat in Wexford, a side that is similar in age profile and equally starved of success.
It is now 21 years since the Model men last lifted Liam MacCarthy, and they will face stiff competition from Limerick and Galway - who they face in their first two games - if they are to rejoin the six-team top tier of the Allianz Hurling League next season.
“I can see it with them, without a shadow of a doubt," Fitzgerald told RTÉ Sport at the launch of the league in Croke Park. "I’d love if I could get the same result. I think I’d retire ASAP. As quick as I could!"
“They’re only dying to win something. They really, really want to.
“There’s definitely potential there. They have fantastic hurlers. They’re good to take stuff on board. They’ll do anything you ask them to do.
“But I’m going to learn more now as we see the big games. That’s when you learn more. You know yourself, when you go out between the white lines and the pressure is on, that’s when I’m going to see what the story is.
“But I can’t say a bad word about the guys. They have applied themselves incredibly and I have pushed them pretty hard over the few months because we have to hit the ground running at the start of the National League because we have two hard games at the start. We’ll see what happens."
Davy Fitzgerald back on the road again with Wexford #AllianzLeagues #GAA pic.twitter.com/5H3Nee7BTG
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) February 6, 2017
Fitzgerald was careful to temper his optimism with a dose of realism, warning that he "wasn't Houdini" and that turning results around - Wexford haven't reached an All-Ireland semi-final since 2007 - would take time.
“I suppose the expectation within the county… they’re trying to manage it a small bit," he said. "Because I can see their enthusiasm with the supporters - they’re absolutely chomping at the bit.
“The only thing you’d be worried about is, they’re getting so excited. You’re kind of saying ‘hold on a second, we’re only here two or three months. Give us a chance’.
“You don’t want them putting too much pressure on the lads. There’s a process here. We’ll stick with it, good or bad, and see how it goes.
“I’ve always said and I don’t mind saying it, 100 per cent: in two years, if I feel I haven’t made the progress, I have no problem…it mightn’t be a fit then…or it might.
“Just give us that bit of room. Everyone thinks I’m trying to play it down. I’m not playing it down. I’m being realistic.
“Think about it. To go in over two or three months and turn the whole ship around and to win X, Y or Z – it isn’t Houdini at all I am. But let’s see what happens."
The 45-year-old former goalkeeper suffered a health scare last summer - he had minor heart surgery just days before Clare's All-Ireland quarter-final defeat to Galway.
Though he says the incident gave him a new perspective on life, it is clear that his passion for management remains undimmed.
"You definitely value things way more," he said. "Your health is everything, like. I don't think you realise that until someone close to you or yourself gets a rattle.
"You have all of these ideas and plans, but you've got to be healthy and right to do them.
"I've made a few changes and I've got to make more. Like, I could even be healthier than I am. I want to be around in a number of years time. I have to listen to my body.
"Probably my doctor wouldn't have been the happiest that I got involved with Wexford. He probably said a year or two out would do me no harm."
"Probably my doctor wouldn't have been the happiest that I got involved with Wexford. He probably said a year or two out would do me no harm.
"When you get that little challenge you say, 'fair enough'. I don't know, am I going in and am I worried? A lot of people say to me 'you've it done, you've won everything'.
"It's the start of a new challenge, you've to go again, you've to fight like anything. I like that, so I do. But probably for the first time in a long time I have to think of myself as well. I have to make sure that I'm good. I have to be good for the lads to get the best out of me.
"I have to be healthy, I have to be buzzing. And I know that will rub off on the lads as well. That's something I'm probably a lot more conscious of and I have work to do myself on that to get myself right."
