Lamine Camara's reported £47.1m move to Chelsea collapsed on deadline day.
Lamine Camara in action for AS Monaco against Liverpool at Anfield
Lamine Camara in action for AS Monaco against Liverpool at Anfield (Image: Getty Images)
Lamine Camara has been assured that he can complete a high-profile move will materialise 'very soon' amid reported interest from Liverpool. Chelsea were left incensed on deadline day after a £47.1million deal to bring Camara to Stamford Bridge from Monaco fell through at the 11th hour.
The 22-year-old had undergone a medical as Chelsea sought a replacement for Enzo Fernandez, whose £125m switch to Manchester City — a joint-British record — was confirmed just moments earlier. However, the Ligue 1 outfit went back on their agreement and notified Chelsea they were withdrawing from the deal after the transfer window shut.
In the wake of the deal's collapse, alongside Folarin Balogun walking away from a £40m move to Everton, talkSPORT reported that Liverpool had urged Camara 'to wait', with a summer transfer a genuine possibility.
In a press conference on Wednesday, AS Monaco sporting director Thiago Scuro confirmed that Camara had requested to leave the club, but revealed he had since held talks with the midfielder and reassured him that a prominent transfer would come 'very soon', with 'even better options than he did yesterday' potentially on the horizon.
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Reflecting on how deadline day played out from Monaco's perspective, Scuro said: "I think that is a good place to start to speak not just about the last two days but the last 10 days. I've been saying that our strategy this summer is very clear. We need to generate money, as we've been saying, pushed by regulations and by everything that we've been discussing over the last few years in terms of financial constraints in our league.
"We had a clear plan to talk about the two topics. We also made clear that our priority was to keep Lamine in the club. It's going to be his third season; normally, it's the cycle that we do. We try to protect also the performance, because the performance is strongly connected to the financial situation of the club as well."
"Clearly, we were open to discussing and finding a transfer for Balogun. He finished his third season. We had already worked in advance to replace him, and we were fully ready to do this. Things went very well with this strategy until we were almost there. Basically, to talk about Lamine, we'd been approached by several clubs during the summer.
"The message has always been the same: our priority is that he stays, even yesterday morning after the training session. We had a conversation with Lamine directly, which was very okay and friendly, where he also showed the desire to stay, that he was happy in the club.
"During the day, we had a clear agreement for Balogun to go to Everton. Balogun flew yesterday morning to go for medicals and sign a contract. Our plan worked very well in this moment in terms of revenue generation, squad planning, player transfers. Thilo (Kehrer) going, as announced, opened the space in the salary that we needed with the DNCG (French football's financial watchdog). Balogun, besides the salary, was also an important source of income for the club, which would help us also to balance the season. And then, Lamine staying.
"This was what we had until mid-afternoon. What happened is that Chelsea was always testing and trying. What about Lamine? What about Lamine? I've been talking to them for the last 10 days. Around 4pm yesterday, we got a contact from Chelsea. Okay, we sold a player in this position (Enzo Fernandez). Deal done. Is there any possibility that Monaco is open to selling Lamine? The answer was the same. No, it's not. At this moment, at 4pm, Balogun was in Liverpool undergoing his medical. Everything was going pretty well. Around 7pm, we were contacted by Everton, raising questions about Balogun's medical, which, for our medical staff, as well as for the player's personal medical staff, made no sense at all.
Lamine Camara up against Cody Gakpo during the recent friendly match between Liverpool and AS Monaco at Anfield
Lamine Camara up against Cody Gakpo during the recent friendly match between Liverpool and AS Monaco at Anfield (Image: Getty Images)
"The explanations were not enough to justify or to bring concerns regarding the future of the player, which there aren't. This discussion started between medical departments from here and there. It took Everton around 2/3 hours to go deep into the assessment and 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, share the images and discuss the case. This was ongoing."
Before he added: "Meanwhile, as with everything in the last days, 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 Balogun has failed his medical. And then, of course, Chelsea saw the opportunity. 'OK, Monaco needs money. Balogun 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 called us. Oh, maybe I can be here for the solution. And at that moment, we had to open the door for the discussion.
"This was almost 8pm. We started negotiations with Chelsea. I informed the player directly myself. I called him. I informed his agent, as we always do. Very open. We had discussions about the conditions for Lamine to go to Chelsea. At the same time, the medical discussion was ongoing with Balogun. And what happened was that around 10pm, in our time here, maybe a bit earlier, Everton realised that, OK, there is no problem. We are ready to do it. Let's sign the contract.
"As soon as we got the information, we came back to Chelsea and thought, OK, we have our deal there. There is no deal on it. Because it's also fair to do this. It's also part of the game. There is no reason that these kinds of discussions are 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, that now this kind of interaction [sees us] become the bad guys in the room. That Monaco is 'not fair, Monaco is not right. Everybody is very fair and nice in the football industry. Just Monaco is not.' Too much."
Discussing what the future holds for Camara, Scuro continued: "On Lamine, I really respect and understand. Because the player might have got excited yesterday during the day by conversations with the coach.
"By everything that a club like Chelsea can propose and promise to a player. At the end of the day, he also asked us to try to find a solution for him to leave.
"But again, we explained the reasons why we did what we did. And now we're going to keep respecting and working with him. Knowing his mentality and his character, we can expect him full power in the next game. And he's going to keep building his career."