Thiago Scuro says Monaco’s decision to cancel their agreement with Chelsea is ‘part of the game’ (AS Monaco) AS Monaco’s CEO, Thiago Scuro, has explained the circumstances behind the club’s decision to cancel Lamine Camara’s transfer to Chelsea and believes Xabi Alonso’s side now risk missing out on signing the Senegal midfielder next year. After failing with two offers earlier on deadline day, Chelsea finally reached an agreement with Monaco worth €55 million (£47.1m) in the closing stages of the transfer window. Monaco had also agreed a £40m deal with Everton to sell Folarin Balogun but the Premier League club raised concerns during the striker’s medical which threatened to scupper the move. Everton eventually decided to push on with their deal to sign Balogun, which then prompted Monaco to pull out of their agreement with Chelsea over their deal for Camara. Exclusive Premier League previews Get ahead of the start of the season with our weekly football newsletter. Sign up now for free. Balogun then opted not to join Everton due to their concerns during his medical and the United States international will remain at Monaco for the time being. Chelsea are understood to have been furious with Monaco’s conduct but speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Scuro insisted that the club’s decision to U-turn on their transfer agreement with Camara is ‘part of the game’. Chelsea agreed a £47m deal to sign Lamine Camara (AMA/Getty) Scuro was also adamant that Camara, who has also attracted interest from Liverpool and Manchester United this summer, ‘will have better options and offers’ next year. ‘Our priority was to keep Lamine in the club, it’s going to be his third season, normally the cycle we do we try to protect our solid performers because the performances are strongly connected to the financial situation of the club as well,’ Scuro said. ‘Clearly, we were open to discussing a transfer for Balogun, he finished his third season, we were already working to replace him, we were fully ready to do this. Things went very well in this strategy until we were almost there. ‘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. ‘During the day, we had a clear agreement for Balogun to go to Everton. Balogun flew yesterday [Tuesday] morning to go for a medical and sign a contract. Our plan worked very, very well in terms of generation of revenue, squad plan, player’s transfer. ‘Balo going, besides of the salary, was also an important income to the club which would have helped us balance the season and then Lamine is staying. Folarin Balogun pulled the plug on his move to Everton (Getty) ‘This is what we had until mid-afternoon, what happened is Chelsea was always testing and trying, ‘what about Lamine, what about Lamine?’, I’ve been talking to them in the last 10 days. ‘Around 4pm yesterday, we got a contact from Chelsea, ‘we sold a player in this position, 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, Balo was in Liverpool undergoing his medicals, everything was going pretty well. ‘Around 7pm, we were contacted by Everton raising questions about the medical of Balo, 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 about the future of the player, which there isn’t. ‘This discussion started between medical departments from here and there [Everton]. It took Everton around two, three hours to go deep in their assessment, check with other doctors, this is a normal situation when the doctor of the club raises concerns, it’s
