{"id":612526,"date":"2026-09-02T19:00:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T19:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/612526\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T19:00:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T19:00:14","slug":"chelsea-transfer-news-how-deadline-day-game-with-monaco-backfired","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/612526\/","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea transfer news: How deadline day game with Monaco backfired"},"content":{"rendered":"

One source with connections to both Chelsea<\/a> and Monaco said the clubs had “played with fire and got burned”.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the late-night transfer drama that involved Folarin Balogun, Everton<\/a>, Monaco, Lamine Camara and Chelsea<\/a> saw all parties lose out.<\/p>\n

Camara – a 22-year-old Senegalese international midfielder – had been a target for Chelsea<\/a> as they prepared for the \u00a3125m sale of Enzo Fernandez to Manchester City<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But Monaco were adamant he was going nowhere for the fee Chelsea<\/a> were willing to pay.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been speaking to them for the last 10 days,” said Monaco sporting director Thiago Scuro said.<\/p>\n

“At around 16:00 BST yesterday we got contact from Chelsea<\/a>. The answer was the same: no.”<\/p>\n

Instead, the Ligue 1 club had allowed United States international striker Balogun, 25, to fly to Merseyside to complete a \u00a340m move to Everton<\/a>. According to Monaco, Camara had agreed to stay with the club.<\/p>\n

With three hours remaining of the transfer window, Chelsea<\/a> were content with their midfield options, despite the sale of Fernandez, after failing with enquiries for Camara and Roma’s Manu Kone.<\/p>\n

But issues with Balogun’s Everton<\/a> medical presented an opportunity for Chelsea<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Of course, Chelsea<\/a> saw an opportunity,” Scuro added.<\/p>\n

“‘Monaco need money, Balogun is struggling there, let’s go and try.’ Chelsea<\/a> called us and said: ‘Maybe we can be the solution.’<\/p>\n

“At that moment, we had to open the door to discussions.”<\/p>\n

Negotiations were back underway with Monaco at 20:00 BST and a \u00a347m fee was agreed shortly after.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Everton<\/a> failed to find alternatives to Balogun and revived their move with minutes before the deadline.<\/p>\n

Chelsea<\/a> had completed all the necessary paperwork for Camara and did not need to submit a deal sheet – a request to the Premier League for additional time to complete a transfer, post the deadline.<\/p>\n

But the plug was pulled. Monaco acknowledge Camara was disappointed after he had spoken to manager Xabi Alonso, passed a medical and signed a contract until 2033.<\/p>\n

“What happened was that around 22:00 BST our time, maybe a bit earlier, Everton<\/a> realised there was no issue and decided they were ready to sign the contract [for Balogun],” Scuro told reporters on Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

“As soon as we received that information, we came back to Chelsea<\/a> and said there was no deal. Because that’s also fair. It’s part of the game.”<\/p>\n

Chelsea<\/a> were left furious, claiming Monaco informed them in writing that the deal would not proceed rather than communicating the decision by phone.<\/p>\n

Monaco thought – by signing a deal sheet, five minutes before the 23:00 BST deadline, to allow Everton<\/a> extra time to complete the transfer of Balogun – they had secured the sale they needed to help comply with Uefa’s financial regulations.<\/p>\n

The Ligue 1 side were under pressure to generate 150m euros in player sales this summer, and had raised 106m euros from departures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One source with connections to both Chelsea and Monaco said the clubs had “played with fire and got…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-612526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}