David Sneyd

IN THE BOARD minutes for Shamrock Rovers that were circulated to relevant parties on 26 February 2025, there were eight points laid out under the heading “Football Department”.

Four of them were in bold.

The first related to the salary for striker Rory Gaffney, the second was about the summer signing of John McGovern with a potential cost for his weekly wage and transfer fee.

The third centred on the release of a fringe player and the fourth sentence in bold was about striker Michael Noonan.

He only arrived at the club from St Patrick’s Athletic at the start of the same year after being convinced by head coach Stephen Bradley that he would get a chance in the first team.

Still only 16 but with Mason Melia one of those ahead in the pecking order at Richmond Park, Noonan made the move to Tallaght Stadium.

A couple of weeks before this board meeting, Noonan made history as the youngest scorer in the Uefa Conference League.

Maybe that is why the single sentence in the minutes stated that the club expected to sell Noonan by the summer of 2025 for a fee of around €1.5 million, with the deductions cited being a percentage to the player’s agent as well as the usual solitary payments for his previous clubs.

Those minutes and details of an amount due to Noonan’s former agent, David Moss, proved crucial for former Rovers chief executive John Martin, now FAI director of football, when the club self-reported to Fifa over fears of breaching third-party ownership rules.

An FAI investigation is also ongoing.

Fast-forward 18 months after that board meeting and with vital experience under his belt, Noonan agreed a transfer to a Premier League Club. It was nowhere close to the targeted seven figures. Noonan underwent a medical at Nottingham Forest, and will soon complete his free transfer move.

He trained with his Rovers teammates on Thursday after arriving home from England and will be in contention to start against Waterford on Friday night. The Hoops are no longer top of the table, having been usurped by St Pat’s on Monday, and the saga surrounding Noonan is sure to be a source of confusion and dismay among supporters.

They have seen their club develop and sell a raft of talent over the past number of years, notably Gavin Bazunu to Manchester City, Naz Rajo to Como, and most recently Victor Ozhianvuna to Arsenal for €2 million.

All were club record deals at the time they happened, so the question on everyone’s lips now is how have Rovers managed to lose Noonan for nothing?

There is context when it comes to some of the upheaval Bradley has had to deal with above him at Shamrock Rovers, and he has also maintained a strong relationship with the player and his family throughout.

Between April 2025 and January of this year the club has seen some important changes.

After Martin’s departure as CEO there was the arrival of Robbie Hedderman as his successor almost 10 months later. There was also the resignation of long-term sporting director Stephen McPhail last December followed by the appointment of former captain Ronan Finn in his place.

Within that time frame it should be noted that a €2m deal with Arsenal for Ozhianvuna was finalised in October 2025.

Noonan’s fee could have been in the same ballpark, but Rovers found themselves in a weaker negotiating position as time passed.

Bradley stated at the end of January that Noonan “signed a new deal with us” – but it is understood that, crucially, this arrangement did not involve extending the length of the player’s contract. Rather, it added benefits to the existing terms, which is why he has been able to leave on a free transfer.

Still, Rovers could well have earned a six-figure fee at the end of the most recent transfer window, as well as significant sell-ons and add-ons, had they been willing to lower upfront fee demands for the player.

Noonan was ready to leave in September and begin the next stage of his career so any chatter about him preferring to run down his contract instead and somehow do Rovers out of any fee is absurd.

Forest realised the player had his heart set on joining them but when it became clear that Rovers were not budging on demands they also played hardball and were happy to wait until his contract ran out at the end of this season.

A basic training compensation package of around €170,000 is expected for Rovers.

It was, as one source described it, a decision that made football sense given there is still much to play for, but not business sense. Rovers are perhaps one of the few in a strong enough position to take such a stance in the League of Ireland.

Hoffenheim showed the most intent up until the January transfer window and while an offer of around €1.8m was accepted by Rovers, Noonan didn’t want to pursue that move.

One of the German club’s negotiators at the time also departed soon after for a different club and while their interest wasn’t over at that point it was clear Noonan’s preference was elsewhere.

Celtic were also keen, bringing Noonan over for a tour of the club’s facilities and inviting him to a Glasgow derby with Rangers at Celtic Park. Dialogue was maintained but no formal offer was ever forthcoming and the sense among some of those at the club to the situation is that Celtic assumed they were in pole position.

Noonan’s impressive performances for Ireland at the U17 World Cup last November also brought him to the attention of more suitors.

And when he accepted another invitation from Ajax to discuss a move earlier this year Celtic are understood to have had their noses put out of joint, despite still not acting on their own interest.

The feeling when Noonan came away from Ajax is that Amsterdam was going to be the perfect next move. Jordi Cryuff, the technical director, led a presentation to him and made it clear he could progress through their system.

Noonan was told by Ajax that they are a “trampoline club” and that a bigger move would be on the horizon within a couple of years. Between video calls and that in-person meeting with Cryuff it seemed that Ajax had won the race.

And then Forest, led by former Republic of Ireland international Andy Reid who is the club’s head of football development, blew Ajax and everyone else out of the water with a kind of tough love presentation that struck a chord with a player who is said to love the stick rather than the carrot approach.

Noonan would prefer to prove someone wrong more than anything else. At Forest, he got the usual video presentation of what he does well and why they wanted to sign him, but they also detailed all the ways he can improve with clips of his games with Rovers and Ireland at the World Cup used.

They used the example of Chris Wood and how the striker moves his body, explaining that he would be training with the first-team players every day but playing with the U21s as part of what’s known as the transition programme at the club.

His own strength and conditioning plan as well as nutritional plan was also laid out by those responsible, with the clear message that they see him becoming a first-team player but there was still so much work to do that it is up to him to achieve it.

Like his former Pat’s teammate Melia, who joined Tottenham Hotspur for €1.9m, a loan move after that initial bedding process is not off the table.

Some parting words of advice from Cruyff to Noonan about trusting your instinct and going with your heart stayed with him.

That is why he will head to Nottingham in January. It’s the kind of move everyone at the club expected, just not in the manner they had hoped.