{"id":679128,"date":"2026-07-07T20:15:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T20:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/679128\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T20:15:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T20:15:17","slug":"nottingham-forest-bid-for-ireland-under-21-defender-rejected-second-offer-expected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/679128\/","title":{"rendered":"Nottingham Forest bid for Ireland Under-21 defender rejected, second offer expected"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hull City prospect Cathal McCarthy is drawing interest from the Premier League, Championship and Scotland.<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"eager\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0_GettyImages-2261510388.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p aria-label=\"Cathal McCarthy of Hull City is challenged by Estevao of Chelsea\" class=\"ImageCaption_caption-title__ccyQU\" data-testid=\"caption-title\">Cathal McCarthy of Hull City is challenged by Estevao of Chelsea(Image: Chelsea Football Club\/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Nottingham Forest have had a bid for Ireland Under-21 defender Cathal McCarthy turned down by Hull City.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">The <a aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishmirror.ie\/all-about\/premier-league\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_self\">Premier League<\/a> club is expected to make a fresh offer, but will face competition from rival top-flight sides and a number of Championship and Scottish outfits.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">McCarthy is regarded among the top young centre back prospects in English football right now and <a aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishmirror.ie\/all-about\/nottingham-forest-fc\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_self\">Forest<\/a>\u2019s initial bid is believed to be a significant seven-figure sum.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">However, the Championship play-off winners would be reluctant to lose someone that they view as a major asset.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">At least two <a aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishmirror.ie\/all-about\/scottish-premiership\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_self\">Scottish Premiership<\/a> sides are eager to bring the former <a aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishmirror.ie\/all-about\/ucd-afc\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_self\">UCD<\/a> man north of the border on loan, which may be a preferable option right now.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">McCarthy joined Hull last summer from UCD &#8211; after opting to remain with the <a aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishmirror.ie\/all-about\/league-of-ireland\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_self\">League of Ireland<\/a> side so that he could complete his Leaving Certificate.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0_GettyImages-2260994772.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p aria-label=\"Estevao of Chelsea and Cathal McCarthy of Hull City\" class=\"ImageCaption_caption-title__ccyQU\" data-testid=\"caption-title\">Estevao of Chelsea and Cathal McCarthy of Hull City(Image: Robbie Jay Barratt &#8211; AMA\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">He made eight first-team appearances before an injury sustained in April kept him out of Hull\u2019s play-off final run.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">His debut came last August, when he starred alongside Ireland international John Egan against Blackburn Rovers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">He was man of the match when Hull beat Middlesbrough in just his second Championship start, while there were also FA Cup appearances against Blackburn and Chelsea.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\"><a aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishmirror.ie\/newsletter-preference-centre\/?view=Solus&amp;mailingListId=b1ea692a-d5b9-4239-b4e4-d4296e9f32c1&amp;utm_source=solusarticle\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"\">Click here to sign up to our sport newsletter, bringing you the top stories and biggest headlines from Ireland and beyond<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hull City prospect Cathal McCarthy is drawing interest from the Premier League, Championship and Scotland. Cathal McCarthy of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":679129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[398,218,25891,199928,21000,48238,22145,16358,221,226784,101,226785,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-679128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-chelsea-fc","tag-football","tag-hull-city-afc","tag-hull-city-fc","tag-league-of-ireland","tag-leaving-certificate","tag-middlesbrough-fc","tag-nottingham-forest-fc","tag-premier-league","tag-republic-of-ireland-u21-football-team","tag-sports","tag-ucd-afc","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=679128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}