Football life has come full circle for Tom Carr in the past 10 months. From being manager of the Dublin team in an All-Ireland quarter-final against Kerry, he has travelled to the point where this Saturday he will be involved with Dublin's first opponents in this year's Leinster championship, Wexford.

He won't, however, be in the dugout. "Are you joking me?" he exclaims. "I wouldn't be let away with that."

The involvement is more at a consultative level. He trains Dublin-based players from the county, just as he does for footballers in a similar position from Fermanagh and Mayo. But he does more for Wexford.

"I go down there about once a month and advise on training methods and things to watch for in matches. The biggest obstacle is the lack of a sense of belief and confidence that they can break the mould."

This was most plainly on display when having played themselves to the verge of Division One football for the first time in the county's history, Wexford - needing only one point against Carlow - fell at the last hurdle and watched Laois touch them off for promotion.

He says that there was no simple reason for this, such as the fact that the counties are neighbours.

"I'm sure it was really about the fact that they were on the threshhold of something they hadn't done before and found it hard to make that transition, take the first step into a bigger arena."

He agrees that his Dublin team over four years suffered from much the same inhibitions.

"Yes. It's all a mental thing, like Dublin winning a Leinster. When I was there we were in three Leinster finals but couldn't make the breakthrough. But it's easier in a way for counties like Dublin because they have actually done it before. It's not new to them; it is to Wexford."

Although Carr hasn't put football behind him entirely for the past year, the savage demands of top-flight management have eased considerably.

"Of course you miss it," he says. "Football is here, in the blood. There are times you tell yourself you're not missing it but deep down there's a void. However that in turn gives more time for other areas of your life.

"Management isn't just about the physical time, at matches, training, talking to medics and players. It's the mental time. There's not a minute that you don't think about it.

"There's no taking a holiday from it. Play golf and you're still thinking about it, still talking about it. Maybe I have a different perspective now. Of course you think of what might have been but that's experience: sometimes things go the right way; other times they don't."

The termination of his Dublin appointment was public and messy and provoked sympathy throughout the county and beyond. But he doesn't believe that this makes him more motivated or on the other hand in any way awkward that the time has come to confront some of the players who played for him.

"Not particularly, no. I haven't followed Dublin that much. I haven't been to games or beaten a path to Parnell Park. When you're involved you're passionate but when you're not, you're dispassionate."

He believes that the hype surrounding this year's championship has been affected by the imminent World Cup.

"I'm convinced that has made the atmosphere a bit flat in Dublin," he says. "People talk about the GAA in Dublin but the Dublin following are also Manchester United and Liverpool supporters and the World Cup is a big thing for them even if matches don't directly clash."

Would he like to manage Ireland? Carr knows enough about management to cut to the chase.

"With or without?" he inquires.