Monaco chief refuses to apologise for Lamine Camara’s failed Chelsea transfer after Xabi Alonso deadline day phone call

MONACO chiefs have refused to apologise for the way the club handled Lamine Camara’s potential transfer to Chelsea. The Blues had agreed a last-minute deal with the club for the Senegalese midfielder after his team-mate Folarin Balogun‘s move to Everton had appeared to collapse. AS Monaco CEO Thiago Scuro has defended his club’s conduct over a collapsed Lamine Camara deal with Chelsea Credit: Reuters The 22-year-old Senegal star had agreed a move to the Blues before Monaco pulled the deal Credit: Alamy The Ligue 1 side were only looking to allow one of the two stars to leave, with news of Balogun’s failed medical encouraging Xabi Alonso and Co to rush back to Monaco with a £47million bid, which was accepted. But a dramatic U-Turn from Everton in the final hours of deadline day meant that Balogun’s move to the Toffees appeared to be back on – causing Monaco to call off the Camara move and sanction Balogun’s exit instead. Sign up for the Football newsletter Thank you! Now club CEO Thiago Scuro has insisted that he is happy with how the club conducted its business amid the fiasco, after calling a press conference to explain the situation. He explained: “At 4pm, Balo was in Liverpool having his medicals. Everything was going pretty well. “At around 7pm we were contacted by Everton raising questions on Balo’s medicals, 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. Most read in Sport CASINO SPECIAL – BEST CASINO BONUSES FROM £10 DEPOSITS “‘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. “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 10pm 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, we came back to Chelsea and told them ‘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, all of us decided to be there on the last day trying to find solutions with the clock ticking, that now this kind of interaction (we) become 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.” After all the hassle, Balogun eventually decided, AFTER the 11pm UK deadline, that the saga had put him off of a move to Everton. Scuro added: “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’. “The way the medical department of Everton brought doubts about my future or my health. I have nothing. So, I’m not comfortable to sign a loan contract here. And that’s the way we finish our transfer window.” Folarin Balogun’s bizarre Everton transfer saga played into Monaco’s odd behaviour Credit: Getty Arsenal ticket and hospitality deals GET tickets to see Arsenal home games with these official deals. The packages include optional upgrades to VIP hospitality. 6 Sep v Chelsea — BOOK HERE 10 Oct v Leeds United — BOOK HERE 24 Oct v Everton — BOOK HERE 7 Nov v Hull City — BOOK HERE More games available here. *If you click on a link in this article, we will earn affiliate revenue. Alonso reportedly called Camara directly after the move fell through, and the pair had also been in direct contact in the days leading up to the chaos. But Scuro is not worried about any bad blood towards the club from the 22-year-old, whose request to move away from the club was not at the expense of his professionalism. He even told the youngster that “better options and offers” would come along in the future, in a thinly-veiled dig at Chelsea. Scuro added: “To talk about Lamine, we have been approached by several clubs during the summer, the message has always been the same that 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 at the club, adapted to this.” “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. He’s going to keep building his career. “As with many other players, better things will come in the future. This is not the end of the world. It’s just one possibility for a player on his level with his talent. I’m very confident that soon he will have even better options and offers than the one he had yesterday.” Comment now