AS Monaco sporting director Thiago Scuro has spoken out on the extraordinary deadline day double twist that saw Lamine Camara and Folarin Balogun's proposed transfers to Chelsea and Everton collapse
Thiago Scuro
Thiago Scuro has explained why Chelsea were unable to sign Monaco midfielder Lamine Camara
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AS Monaco sporting director Thiago Scuro has claimed he doesn't want to "create a war" with Chelsea or Everton following the late collapse of deadline day deals for Lamine Camara and Folarin Balogun.
Camara was undergoing his medical examinations at a private clinic when he was abruptly informed the £47million deal would no longer be going ahead following after Balogun's move to Everton broke down for the second time.
Problems were initially flagged during the USMNT striker's medical but talks were revived; however, Balogun is said to have felt unhappy with how he was allegedly made to feel by Everton's medical staff and he instead decided not to finalise his move to Merseyside.
Scuro said during a press conference in the Principality on Wednesday morning after Senegal international Camara returned to Monaco training with his team-mates: "To talk about Lamine, we've been approached by several clubs during the summer. The message has been always the same that our priority is that he stays.
"Even yesterday morning after the training session we had the conversation with Lamine directly which was very okay and friendly where he also showed the desire to stay."
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The chief then explained how both transfers fell apart, clarifying the extraordinary sequence of events: "At this moment at 4pm, Balo was in Liverpool making his medicals. Everything was going pretty well.
"At around 7pm we were contacted by Everton raising questions on the medicals of Balo, which for our medical staff, which for the personal medical staff of the player, there was totally no sense. the explanations were not enough to justify or to bring concerns of the future of the player.
"This discussion started between medical departments from here and there. It took forever, about two to three hours, to go deep on the assessment check with other doctors. This is a normal situation when the doctor of the club raises concerns. It's quite normal that clubs will look for other specialists sharing the images and discuss the case.
"Meanwhile, as everything on the last day, this was in the press quite quickly. I would say around half an hour after we were contacted, it was already in the media that Balo is failing on the medical.
"Then Chelsea saw the opportunity. Okay, Monaco needs money. Balo is struggling there. Let's go. Let's try. And this is the game. It's fair to play this game. There is no problem. Chelsea came and said 'here, I can be here for the solution'. And on this moment, we had to open the door for the discussion.
Lamine Camara
Lamine Camara was denied a £47m transfer to Chelsea on transfer deadline day(Image: Sebastian Frej)
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"We started to open negotiations with Chelsea for Lamine. I informed the player directly myself. I called him. I informed his agent as we always do. Very open. We had discussions between the conditions for Lamine to go to Chelsea. At the same time, the medical discussion was ongoing with Balo. And what happened was that around 10:00pm in our time here, maybe a bit earlier, Everton realised that okay, there's no problem. We are ready to do let's sign the contract.
"Chelsea was always testing and trying. 'What about Lamine? What about Lamine?' I've been talking to them from the last 10 days. As soon as we got the information, yes, we did came back to Chelsea and told 'okay, we have our deal there'.
"There is no deal on Lamine because it's also fair to do this. It's also part of the game. There's no reason that this kind of discussions or dynamic on the last day of the transfer window which all of us decided to be on the last day trying to find solutions with the clock ticking in our neck that now this kind of interaction becomes the bad guys in the room that Monaco is not fair, Monaco is not right. Everybody is very fair and nice in football industry just Monaco is not too much. So this is the storytelling.
"We informed again everyone that there was no deal with Chelsea. We progressed. Premier League has a mechanism which you can request one extra hour to finish the paperwork. This was done five minutes to close the transfer window there for us to finish all the paperwork between Monaco and Everton and Balo. I signed the contract. Everton signed the contract.
"At the last moment the player decided not to sign and basically the allegation of Balo is that 'I'm not feeling well by the way the club treated me. I'm not feeling well'. By the way, the medical department of Everton brought doubts about my future or my healthy. I have nothing. So, I'm not comfortable to sign a loan contract here. And that's the way we finish our transfer window."
Chelsea believe Monaco acted unprofessionally in refusing to sign a deal-sheet which would have granted the Blues extra time to get the formalities over the line.
Scuro has seemingly implied there was a lack of time, having just beaten the clock with minutes to spare for Balogun's paperwork with Everton. Relations between the parties remain tense.