Why progressive Dublin footballers are truly the GAA’s worst evil

A few months before Bryan Cullen would become the first Dublin man in 16 years to lift Sam Maguire, the then director of football operations at Chelsea, Mike Forde, spoke at a conference in Liverpool about a bit of a continuing professional development tour he took in on Stateside.

One of the people he spent some time with was Billy Beane of Moneyball fame. Forde mentioned to the Oakland A’s general manager he would be also meeting up with the Boston Red Sox.

A few years earlier, the Red Sox had offered Beane what would have been a record salary for anyone working in a front office position in US sport.