UCD boss Collie O'Neill says the club are in the dark over Liam Scales' move to Bristol Rovers.
The Gas appear to have won the race for the in-demand centre-back, who has already rejected a move to Manchester City under-23s this summer.
O'Neill had claimed Scales was close to moving to Rovers at the end of June but the deal has dragged on, leading to interest from League One rivals Fleetwood Town and Portsmouth.
The defender had not trained with his teammates since it was revealed he was due to join Rovers , but he played his first game for a month on Friday night as UCD lost 2-1 to Waterford, and O'Neill says he has no idea why the transfer is dragging on.
"There's absolutely nothing on it," he told extratime.ie. "It's still stalled. We're still just waiting on a final bit of paperwork but... nothing. It's dragging on a little.
"Bristol Rovers were in for him and it was more or less done, and then Fleetwood came in as well but he had his mind made up that Bristol Rovers was the one he wanted to go to.
"So that's where it was left but it was just left with paperwork to be done. It just seemed to drag on."
Speaking last week, Rovers boss Graham Coughlan said the issue is out of his hands.
He said: "There is obviously an issue with the paperwork as we all know. There are one or two minor details which need tidying up, which need sorting out, whether we do that or not I don’t know?
"It is out of my hands now, I have passed it onto the powers that be - he is a player I have identified and I liked."
He added: "A lot of nonsense has been spoken in the press across in Ireland, some of them have actually quoted me but I haven’t spoken to anyone in the Irish media regarding Liam Scales.
"There are quotes upon quotes which aren’t the truth, that he was guaranteed to start if he moves here but you guys know me, I don't guarantee that for anybody, they have got to earn it, to work for it.
"I don’t know whether one or two people are playing games. Low and behold when it came out in the paper we were interested in Liam Scales one or two other clubs were suddenly linked so I don’t know what is going on.
"What I know is that from my point of view I like Liam Scales and if I had the opportunity to sign Liam Scales I would."
