Chelsea sold Enzo Fernández to Manchester City for £125m on deadline day, a fee matching the British transfer record, and turned immediately to Lamine Camara as his replacement. Chelsea and Monaco reportedly agreed a £47m deal for Camara, only for Monaco to cancel the move at the eleventh hour, leaving both the club and the player reportedly furious, before the saga twisted again and Monaco ended up completing neither of the deals they’d been juggling.
Fabrizio Romano reported that Chelsea had reached an agreement in principle for the Senegal international, with the move using the now-familiar “here we go” framing that suggested it was as good as done. Camara had already completed his medical and agreed personal terms on a six-year contract. Sky Sports chief correspondent Kaveh Solhekol described it plainly: “My information is everything was done, written, agreed, signed. He was flying into London.”
Hours later, Romano posted again, this time reporting that Monaco had cancelled the deal despite a written agreement between the two clubs. Romano described Chelsea as furious, calling it a deeply unprofessional way to conduct business.
How Folarin Balogun’s Medical Triggered The Whole Saga
The actual chain of events explains why this collapsed so dramatically. Everton had agreed a £40m deal to sign Folarin Balogun from Monaco, but the move hit trouble when an issue emerged during his medical. That opening freed Monaco to pivot toward selling Camara to Chelsea instead, since they still needed to bank a major sale before the window shut.
Everton then returned to the table and renegotiated Balogun’s terms, exchanging documents and submitting a Premier League deal sheet to keep talks alive beyond the 11pm deadline. Once that revived agreement was in place, Monaco reneged on the written Camara deal with Chelsea to prioritise completing the Balogun sale instead.
The Twist: Balogun Rejects Everton Too
Just after midnight, in the kind of ending nobody at Monaco could have wanted, Balogun himself walked away from the revived Everton move entirely. That left Monaco having burned their agreement with Chelsea over Camara for a Balogun sale that then collapsed anyway, with neither transfer completed by the time the window shut.
Camara remains a Monaco player and a regular for Senegal, and nothing in the available reporting suggests his contractual situation at the club has changed as a result of the collapsed deal. Balogun, similarly, stays at Monaco for now.
Camara’s Position
According to Simon Phillips, writing on Substack, Camara was left fuming at Monaco for blocking what the reporting frames as his dream move to Stamford Bridge. There is no public statement from the 22-year-old himself in the material available, so that anger is reported rather than confirmed in his own words.
Liverpool’s Shadow Over The Deal
Camara has also been linked with Liverpool, and Ben Jacobs reported that the Reds spoke with both the player and Monaco, urging them to wait because Liverpool could return with an approach in future. A separate post from Watch LFC claimed that Richard Hughes, in his final act as Liverpool’s sporting director, personally called Monaco and Camara to ask them to cancel the Chelsea move, a claim that has not been independently verified.
Chelsea, for their part, look set to shift focus rather than reopen talks. Their pursuit of Alex Scott from Bournemouth earlier this window shows a similar pattern of chasing a specific profile before pivoting when a deal stalls, and the club are reportedly interested in Atletico Madrid’s Pablo Barrios as a January target. Chelsea had also made late approaches for other midfielders including Lucas Bergvall, Martin Zubimendi and Morgan Gibbs-White before turning to Camara.
The Verdict
For now, the Chelsea-Camara deal is dead, killed by Monaco’s own late decision to prioritise a Balogun sale that then collapsed anyway. Chelsea are left without a Fernández replacement, having known all summer his departure was likely. Whether Liverpool follow through on their reported long-term interest in Camara remains unconfirmed, but if he keeps performing in Ligue 1, this will not be the last big move linked to his name.
