Michael Noonan is due for a medical at Nottingham Forest this week after agreeing to leave Shamrock Rovers on a free transfer in January. Noonan is eligible to sign for a UK club since he turned 18 in July.
The striker’s contract with Rovers ends in December, so the League of Ireland champions will only receive a fraction of the €2 million Arsenal paid them for Victor Ozhianvuna.
Ozhianvuna also leaves the Tallaght club for the Premier League in January.
Rovers are entitled to training ground compensation for Noonan, who left St Patrick’s Athletic in 2025 to sign his first professional contract to play under Stephen Bradley.
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If the move is completed, the teenager will link up with the former Republic of Ireland player Andy Reid, who is the head of football development at the City Ground.
Rovers had hoped to make a seven-figure profit from the sale of the Ireland under-21 international, who scored 17 goals in 81 appearances for the Hoops, with interest from Manchester City, Celtic, Ajax, Hoffenheim in Germany and belatedly Forest.
Last season’s potential €2 million sale to Hoffenheim sparked two ongoing investigations by Fifa and the FAI into an allegation of third-party ownership.
Noonan’s agent David Moss denies any wrongdoing.
Rovers self-reported the allegation to the FAI last year after their chief executive, John Martin, left the club to become the association’s director of football.
“I am very comfortable with my time at the club,” said Martin on Monday. “Everything I did was in the best interest of the club. Since I’ve left the club I’ve been very dignified, very respectful and very professional towards the club and my intention is to remain being very dignified towards the club because I think that’s really important to my role. In football in general, there is probably not enough of that.”
Martin was asked if the same respect and dignity has been shown to him since he left Rovers.
“I won’t be getting into an argument or calling people out publicly just in general as a rule because it’s not how I was brought up. It’s not how I built my own professional career. I think it’s the right thing for football in Ireland to have someone who behaves that way.”
The FAI has yet to interview Martin as part of their investigation into the Noonan situation.
“If something was to come out of it, if there’s an oversight or whatever, then so be it,” Martin added. “I’ll hold my hands up. But the story could be: ‘a man makes a mistake or not’. I don’t know. But I don’t care. I’ve moved on. I work for the FAI now; I’ve got loads of things going on.
“Everything I did [at Rovers] was for the best of the football club. Always.”
