Lamine Camara's proposed move to Stamford Bridge fell through at the last minute due to what Chelsea described as a "deeply unprofessional" U-turn from AS Monaco.

Chelsea and Manchester City reached an agreement over Enzo Fernandez’s transfer on Tuesday's deadline day of the transfer window.

Manchester City agreed to pay £125 million for the Argentina international, £5m more than Chelsea's initial asking price. This makes Fernandez the joint-most expensive player in Premier League history alongside Alexander Isak. He is also Chelsea’s record transfer sale.

Despite the lucrative sale, the late nature of the deal meant Chelsea had only hours to decide what to do with the funds.

According to the BBC, Chelsea initially indicated that they would bank the cash and not sign a direct replacement. However, the club changed course in the final hours and re-entered negotiations with AS Monaco over a potential deal for highly rated young midfielder Camara.

The whole story involved three clubs: Monaco, Chelsea, Everton, and two players: Camara and Folarin Balogun. It was perhaps one of the rare occasions where all parties came out losers.

Chelsea and Everton each tried to sign a Monaco player. The former wanted Camara, the latter Balogun.

Monaco, on the other hand, were only willing to offload one of the two. In this case, they would rather lose Balogun and keep their star midfielder.

Everton and Monaco had already reached an agreement over Balogun’s transfer as Chelsea continued to make several offers for Camara, albeit to no avail at the time.

The first twist occurred after Everton encountered a problem during Balogun’s medical, which then put the proposed transfer on hold.

This spurred the negotiations between Chelsea and Monaco over Camara, leading to an agreement on a deal worth €55 million (£47m).

There had been a written club-to-club agreement, and Camara had undergone a medical and agreed a six-year contract with Chelsea by the time Monaco decided to pull the plug on the transfer. 

This was the second twist.

The reason was simple. Monaco renegotiated Balogun’s transfer to Everton at the last minute. As mentioned, Monaco would rather sell the American striker than Camara.

According to The Telegraph, Chelsea were “left fuming” by Monaco’s U-turn, which they felt was “deeply unprofessional”.

The story does not end here, however. There was another twist.

Despite filing the deal sheet with the Premier League in time to get additional time to submit remaining documentation, Everton did not get their new striker. Balogun personally decided to abandon the move shortly after midnight.

Neither Chelsea nor Everton acquired their targets, while Monaco, who planned on selling one of the two stars, ended up keeping both. It remains unclear whether Monaco would be under financial pressure because of this.

The two players missed out on likely lucrative moves to Premier League clubs. Balogun at least made the final call in the outcome, while Camara had no say in his.

With Dario Essugo having joined RC Strasbourg on loan, Chelsea are considerably thinner in midfield.

As it stands, Moises Caicedo, Romeo Lavia, Valentin Barco, and Jordan Henderson are the only four natural central midfield options. That said, Chelsea’s two right-backs, Reece James and Malo Gusto, are also capable of playing in midfield.