Liverpool will get the chance to bring Lamine Camara to Anfield in 2027, with AS Monaco sporting director Thiago Scuro revealing that the midfielder will be allowed to leave soon.
Chelsea had a £47million deal in place with AS Monaco for Camara, who had also undergone a medical at the Premier League club.
However, Monaco pulled the plug on the deal in the final hours of the last day of the summer transfer window.
While Chelsea will have been bitterly disappointed, Monaco’s decision has left the door open for Liverpool to swoop in for the 22-year-old Senegal international midfielder.
Liverpool target Lamine Camara in 2027
Transfer journalist Ben Jacobs said on talkSPORT: “Liverpool don’t want Lamine Camara now.
“They never explored it.
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“Alexis Mac Allister is still at the club.
“But my understanding is that Liverpool said to Monaco, ‘Wait’.
“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.”
On September 2, Monaco sporting director Scuro said in a press conference that the Ligue 1 club are willing to sell Camara in the upcoming transfer windows, which will come as a huge boost to Liverpool’s chances of securing his services.
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AS Monaco will sell Lamine Camara
Get Football News France has quoted Scuro as saying about Camara and Folarin Balogun’s failed move to Everton: “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 4 p.m. 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 4 p.m, Balogun was in Liverpool undergoing his medical.
“Everything was going pretty well. Around 7 p.m., 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.
“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.
“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 8 p.m. 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 10 p.m, 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.”
Scuro added about Camara: “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.
“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.”
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