‘It’s part of the game’ – Thiago Scuro explains Lamine Camara’s failed Chelsea move and Folarin Balogun’s decision to reject Everton

AS Monaco CEO Thiago Scuro held a press conference, attended by Get French Football News, in La Turbie on Wednesday afternoon to explain how Lamine Camara's (22) move to Chelsea and Folarin Balogun's (25) move to Everton broke down during the final hours of transfer deadline day. The Principality club's CEO notably denied that Monaco were "the bad guys" in the room regarding Camara's failed move, and also revealed that it is Balogun who opted against Everton after Everton's medical staff diagnosed a problem that, according to his personal medical staff, made "no sense at all".

Thiago, can you explain what happened last night? There were two deals that were on, off, back on again, and ultimately off….

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.

Scuro on Camara's failed move to Chelsea: 'It is part of the game'

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.

Balogun 'not comfortable' about making Everton move after doubts raised in medical

So this is the storytelling. We informed, again, everyone that there was no deal with Chelsea. We progressed. The Premier League has a mechanism in which you can request one extra hour to finish the paperwork. 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 players decided not to sign. And basically, Balogun's allegation is that I'm not feeling well because of the way the club treated me. I'm not feeling well because Everton's medical department raised doubts about my future or my health. I have nothing (no health problem), so I'm not comfortable signing a long contract here. And that's the way we finish our transfer window.

So basically, the story about those two players and what happened yesterday was also new for me. It's the first time in my career that I saw a last day (deadline day) like this. It's not nice to stay the last two days of the transfer window until 3 a.m. in the office, trying to find solutions here and there. And this is something that we need to try to do better as a club, because it puts everyone in a situation where what is happening can happen. And it's not nice to be here, having to explain and having to face all the consequences of this. And the reality is now that we are very, very happy that Lamine stayed. We want to be strong on the pitch. We want to grow this season, and we are going for that. And now we are still waiting for 'Balo' to come back for us to sit and discuss and to realise between us what's next. We still have other markets open, which we are having discussions about with different players, including 'Balo'. Let's see what can still happen until Thursday, because we still have markets that have the financial capacity to do something. And this is what happened, and this is where we are today.

Have the promises to the DNCG as it pertains to the wage bill been kept?

Not completely, no, because 'Balo' leaving was the trigger to get everything OK. Our financial plan was working almost perfectly until 7 p.m. Salary reduction was on target. We were able to bring the players that we want. We had everything approved by the DNCG in advance. We would have a very small financial gap to cover in the winter. Everything was very, very well done. Unfortunately, the facts that I mentioned before happened, and now we have to face this situation and find solutions in different ways. And we are already working on that.

Can Balogun stay and do you blame him for not signing for Everton?

Today, he is a Monaco player. There is a chance that he stays. On Everton, I was not there. We have to respect his decision. We tried to do the work on the club side. We found solutions. Even in slightly better conditions for the player and for Monaco in terms of payment flow. And the reality is that when 'Balou 'Balo' mentioned to us this feeling that he was not comfortable, he didn't want to sign. We didn't see ourselves in a position to push him. We had to respect.

Do you think that Everton tried to play a game with Monaco?

My intention here, as always, is to work and protect AS Monaco. I don't want to create a war with Chelsea. I don't want to create a war with Everton. It's not my role to be here judging whatever anyone did at other clubs. Every time I need to create a conflict or creating a decision to protect AS Monaco, I will do it. This is what I've been doing since I'm here. It's for the organisation. It's not for myself. It's not to be loved by people outside. It's not to be loved by other clubs. It's to give AS Monaco what AS Monaco needs. And this is what we did yesterday.

For Balogun, I only spoke to him by phone. His arguments are clear. He's coming back. I think he took the decision. There is not a big reason for him to be affected too much because it's his decision. 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 hischaracter, 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.

Do you have any regrets? In hindsight, would you have done things differently?

First of all, we should try and discuss whether it makes sense that our transfer window closes before the Premier League because this causes a lot of problems.This was part of my discussion during the afternoon with Chelsea. We closed at 8 p.m. I don't have the time to stay until 1 a.m signing players.

So to protect French clubs, maybe we are becoming more than ever a selling league. Maybe we should start discussing following other countries that stay one day more, two days more. Like Belgium is doing, like Turkey is doing and other markets, because it's a way to protect the local clubs. So this is the first point. And the second, well, I'm not a guy of regretting anything. Every time you look back on things already done, all of us may do something different here and there. Because we already know the outcome.

Of course, if I knew that at 1 a.m Balogun would not sign the contract, would I do something different before? Of course. But with the elements we had, with the information we had, in my view, we made very good decisions. Unfortunately, the outcome is not the one we expected.

I don't think so. I think what happened is that, yes, we had other offers. At the end of the day, Balogun decided to go to Everton. This also made me a bit sad yesterdaywhen the topic of the medicals came up because the player refused other things to go there. And again, we are judging facts. After the fact, it's always easier. But I don't think we were setting very high expectations because we never give a price. We are open to listening to offers. And from there, we discuss. This is the way we work. We don't work like this. We are open. We listen to the offer and from there, we progress. I think the whole industry somehow uses the market value of theplayers as a reference. The market value of Balogun today is €50m on Transfermarkt , for example.

Did this prevent you from recruiting other players? There was talk of Erik Lira and Fares Ghedjemis arriving…

Yes, this is a good point. On this, we were also very sad yesterday. The situation with Erik Lira, our relationship with Cruz Azul… I want to really thank them, and I appreciate the way they dealt with everything with us. The deal was ready. The player was ready to travel. Everything was absolutely pressing on the button. But it wasmandatory in the agreement that Balogun would open the foreign (Non-EU) spot; because of that, we were not able to bring Erik Lira. That was our desire.Having to call the player and say, I'm sorry, we couldn't make it. As a human, it's a very hard part of the job, on the transfer window. Could he join in January? It depends on several things. We are not in a position to ask them to wait, keep holding. But for sure, it's a player that has our attention and respect.

Could Camara be offerred a contract extension? And also, by how much did you have to reduce the wage bill this summer?

We had to reduce our wage bill by almost 20% from last season. At the moment, we still need to find solutions and discuss with the DNCG how to manage it. We are doing that in a transparent way. Regarding Lamine, it can be an option if his intention is to stay longer at the club. It is something to be discussed. He still has three years remaining.

It is possible. It depends on what happens with players leaving, creating space in the wage bill. It is a possibility that Monaco can have a 'joker' during this first half of the season. Yes, it can happen. Only in the event of a departure? Exactly.

GFFN | Luke Entwistle – reporting from Monaco