Liverpool turn attention to signing player who came close to joining Chelsea
Liverpool held preliminary Lamine Camara talks this summer and retain an interest in him ahead of January, sources have told Football Insider.
Chelsea came close to signing Camara from Monaco before the deal dramatically collapsed on deadline day in a public swirl of claims and counterclaims.
The Londoners agreed a £47million deal with the Ligue 1 team as he prepared to undergo a medical, but Monaco controversially pulled out of talks just after the 11pm deadline had passed.
The principality club had been willing to sell another of their prize assets to raise funds on a day when Folarin Balogun's proposed move to Everton also collapsed at the eleventh hour.
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.
Andoni Iraola did not bolster the midfield he inherited from Arne Slot with any new signings in the summer window.
Liverpool could sign Lamine Camara in January as new twist emerges
Sources exclusively revealed to Football Insider on Monday that Chelsea were "close" to finalising personal terms with Camara ahead of a potential move.
The Senegalese international midfielder ranked highly among Ligue 1 midfielders last season in several key statistics, and has started this season in fine form too.
Chelsea were keen to add him to their ranks as they allowed Enzo Fernandez to join Man City, and they could have pulled the plug on that move late in the day but decided to honour their agreement with the north west giants.
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.
What has the Monaco sporting director said about Camara's failed deal?
Monaco they pulled out because they had successfully renegotiated a deal to sell Folarin Balogun to Everton, only for the striker to sensationally refuse a move to Merseyside and stay at the club.
They will be left ruing their mistake, and the importance of the situation was highlighted by sporting director Thiago Scuro holding an emergency press conference on Wednesday morning.
Explaining the Camara situation to reporters, he 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.
"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'"