Liverpool plot stunning January signing for player who was close to joining Chelsea
Liverpool could make a January transfer window move for Monaco midfielder Lamine Camara after his deadline day move to Chelsea fell through, according to reports.
Chelsea had a £47m transfer agreement in place to sign Camara on deadline day but Monaco pulled the plug on the deal in the final hours of the window.
The Blues still sold Enzo Fernandez to Manchester City in a deal worth £125m, leaving them a central midfielder short after Camara’s move fell through.
It emerged that Liverpool had made calls to Camara to assure him a move to Anfield could be on the cards in 2027 if he didn’t complete a move to Stamford Bridge.
Clarifying interest from Liverpool on deadline day, reliable journalist Ben Jacobs said: “Liverpool don’t want Lamine Camara now. They never explored it.
“Alexis Mac Allister is still at the club. But my understanding is that Liverpool said to Monaco, ‘Wait’.
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“Liverpool said to Camara, ‘Wait’. Now, to be clear, so this is not taken out of context, we are not saying Liverpool interfered in the deal relating to Chelsea.
“We were saying all day, Liverpool said to Monaco and Liverpool said to Camara, if you don’t get your move, and it was not looking likely in the middle of the day, we will be back for you potentially in 2027.”
But now Football Insider insists that Liverpool ‘held preliminary Lamine Camara talks this summer and retain an interest in him ahead of January’.
The report adds: ‘Liverpool have also kept a strong interest in Camara but did not enter negotiations before the deadline, although they could make a move in the new year.’
On Chelsea interest in January, the report continues: ‘It remains to be seen if they will want to do business with Monaco again in January, as Liverpool now plot a possible move for his services.’
Thiago Scuro explains himself to Chelsea
Monaco sporting director Thiago Scuro held a press conference on Wednesday to explain the Camara situation after a deadline day deal collapsed.
Scuro said: “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.
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“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.
“(After the Balogun deal broke down), 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.
“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’. Then there is no deal on Lamine because it’s also fair to do this. It’s also part of the game…we informed again everyone that there was no deal with Chelsea.
“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'”
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