Maybe the question to ask about young JJ Gabriel is whether anyone should be talking about him at all. Is it right that someone who is not old enough for a paper round should be getting the Fabrizio Romano treatment? Do children belong anywhere near the avaricious and ruthless world of professional football?

The sense this week is of one side who feel the tough decisions and hard yards towards integration would be worth it and another side that don’t feel the juice is worth the squeeze, at least in the short term.

The moment the vastness of Croke Park was opened to her, people realised what she had come to mean. This will be a pilgrimage, more than a boxing card.

It’s in the thousands of tiny actions being taken to improve things incrementally at all levels of the game that are most important.

Liverpool’s owners have given another example of how far the game has travelled from working class opera to tradable commodity.

If Haaland is the crazy-eyed berserker, Kane has that bashful awkwardness of the Englishman who would rather be pottering at something in his shed than talking to you. But there is a quiet, steely determination that has made him just as lethal.

Have the vibes ever been so bad heading into one of the ancient game’s marquee weekends?

Kerry are so much better than anyone else that even they cannot be bothered to pretend otherwise. But could they have peaked too early?

Scotland’s fans have made it their mission to win the group stage.

As the World Cup begins, Philip Browne’s understated legacy offers a stark contrast to FIFA’s leadership