Supporters who mainly follow English football may not have known much about Lamine Camara before Chelsea agreed a £47million deadline-day deal for the Monaco midfielder. The 22-year-old is a Senegal international and a combative presence in the middle of the pitch.
They certainly know his name now. Some Chelsea fans have even argued that the collapse of the proposed move on Tuesday night ruined an otherwise productive summer. That may be an exaggerated reaction, as we will explain, but there is no denying the transfer window ended in chaotic fashion.
Camara had already undergone a medical in Monaco, supervised by Chelsea staff who were on standby. He had spoken to Xabi Alonso about his intended role, agreed a six-year contract with the option of a further season and was due to board a private plane to London on Wednesday morning. With a complete written agreement between the clubs in place, the move appeared ready to begin the next phase of his career.
Instead, it fell apart just minutes before the 11pm deadline. Monaco wrote to Chelsea to say they were cancelling the transfer, while the French club also refused to sign a deal sheet that would have extended the deadline by two hours and offered both sides a final opportunity to revive the deal.
That extra time would have been particularly valuable after Monaco forward Folarin Balogun decided at midnight that he did not want to join Everton. Monaco had been counting on the income from both deals. In the end, they received nothing.
Chelsea are furious with Monaco, although some of that frustration may also be directed inward. The club left it perilously late to find a replacement for Enzo Fernandez and took a significant gamble in doing so. Fernandez’s departure had seemed increasingly likely throughout the summer, with plenty of signs pointing towards an exit. Ultimately, Chelsea sold him without bringing in a replacement.
Enzo Fernandez collected yellow cards regularly during his Chelsea career, but the club are delighted with the fee secured from Manchester City for the midfielder
Morgan Rogers, pictured right, has quickly developed an impressive understanding with his friend Cole Palmer and already appears to be an excellent signing despite his sizeable price tag
Even so, that one shortcoming should not overshadow what was, overall, a corrective transfer window for Chelsea following a season that ended with a 10th-place finish in the Premier League.
Half of the 20-man squad Chelsea took to Sunderland on the final day of last season have since been sold or sent out on loan, with Fernandez among them. A cultural reset was clearly needed. Several of Enzo Maresca’s players remained, but Liam Rosenior was never given a realistic chance as his successor. Alonso wanted to retain only those fully committed to his project.
Since BlueCo’s takeover of Chelsea in 2022, no player had been booked for dissent more often than Fernandez, who received 12 cautions for indiscipline. He helped reinforce the perception that the squad lacked the discipline required to succeed, even though Maresca valued the competitive intensity Fernandez brought as his vice-captain.
Chelsea nevertheless sold Fernandez to Manchester City for a huge sum — one of the biggest fees ever received by an English club, matching the amount Newcastle secured from Liverpool for Alexander Isak. Fernandez is an accomplished player, but even in an inflated transfer market it is difficult to argue that the 25-year-old Argentina international is worth a guaranteed £125m.
From Chelsea’s perspective, the deal represented excellent business, especially after City initially proposed £104m plus add-ons. Chelsea had been seeking closer to £135m, but they still made a profit on a player bought from Benfica for £106.8m in 2023 — a midfielder who never consistently justified the expectations attached to that price.
The obvious problem is that Chelsea failed to replace him. They explored several options during the summer, submitting a £64m bid for Bournemouth’s Alex Scott in July, holding discussions over Roma’s Manu Kone and pursuing Camara. Ending the window without adding a midfielder was disappointing, and the manner of deadline day is likely to have intensified that frustration inside the club.
Midfield was the only area of the squad left untouched. Manchester City did not accept Chelsea’s earlier deadline for offers for Fernandez in August, and once the sale was finally approved, Chelsea found themselves under severe time pressure and with very little room to manoeuvre.
Chelsea managed to keep hold of Joao Pedro despite the advances of Barcelona
But they missed out on Monaco midfielder Lamine Camara (left) after a deadline-day farrago
While Chelsea can be pleased with their big bag of cash, it will not help them on the pitch, starting this Sunday at the home of the Premier League champions, Arsenal.
They will now be relying on Moises Caicedo, Reece James, Romeo Lavia, Valentin Barco and Jordan Henderson as senior midfield options. Malo Gusto can also be used centrally if required. Reggie Watson, their academy prospect aged 16, impressed in pre-season under Alonso along with Mahdi Nicoll-Jazuli, also 16.
What will help Chelsea, though, are the others they brought in. While they tried and failed to sign Camara after Monaco’s U-turn, this was still the summer in which Chelsea got serious.
They tried being Todd Boehly’s plaything. They built the Premier League’s youngest-ever side under Behdad Eghbali. In this window, they signed Emiliano Martinez to solve the goalkeeper problem, Morgan Rogers, Maxence Lacroix, Marco Palestra, Pep Chavarria, Danny Welbeck and Henderson.
They kept hold of Joao Pedro, who was wanted by Barcelona, and Cole Palmer, who spent the last season hearing how Manchester United were ready to recruit him. All in all, it was not bad business considering Chelsea entered into this summer amid the usual forecasts of financial Armageddon.
At the same time, Chelsea cleared house, selling or loaning Robert Sanchez, Tosin Adarabioyo, Axel Disasi, Benoit Badiashile, Alejandro Garnacho, Mykhailo Mudryk, Marc Guiu, Liam Delap and Nicolas Jackson, among others.
They insisted they would only sell Pedro Neto for close to £100m and Gusto for £75m, with Liverpool making a play for the latter on deadline day to no avail.
After some of their more out-there experiments in recent years, this was the summer Chelsea got serious – as additions like Emiliano Martinez proved
Chelsea’s approach was described as a collaboration, each of their five sporting directors concentrating on their own areas and Eghbali more invested than most co-owners would be.
For example, a great deal of Paul Winstanley’s work focuses on negotiating with clubs and agents and arranging contracts, such as that signed by Joao Pedro this summer.
When working on signings, Laurence Stewart might deal with the data team, or Joe Shields with the scouting department. Sam Jewell’s remit extends to Strasbourg as well as Chelsea, and then there is Dave Fallows, their newest sporting director who is still building his internal portfolio with background checks on prospective purchases among his responsibilities.
Nobody does everything. Chelsea decided some time ago to narrow their directors’ focuses so that they can go deeper into each area, while Alonso has been allowed his own voice with every signing greenlighted by him as manager.
While it ended in anger over the collapse of Camara, the bigger picture shows this club coming out of this summer better than they went into it.
