How much Liverpool will now have to pay Monaco for Lamine Camara as two alternatives are named

Liverpool supporters will be hoping to see some action in the January transfer window in 2027, with many keen for Monaco midfielder Lamine Camara to arrive.

Liverpool were heavily linked with Camara during the summer, but looked set to miss out on the 22-year-old after Chelsea agreed a fee worth a reported £47m to bring him to Stamford Bridge.

Monaco ended up pulling the plug on the deal at the very last minute, however, leaving the door open for Liverpool to jump back in and sign Camara next year. With relations between Monaco and Chelsea fraught after the saga, there is an opportunity for the Reds, but according to journalist Ben Jacobs, they’ll now have to pay around £60m to sign the Senegal international.

Despite missing out on his move in September, Camara has been in excellent form for Monaco at the start of the season, racking up an impressive number of tackles and duels in Ligue 1 and looking every bit the midfielder Liverpool have been missing.

That has led to renewed talk that the Reds could target Camara in January, but as Jacobs told TheCFCHub when asked if the Blues could also come back in, Monaco have now upped their price. The reporter also confirmed that Liverpool could look to Roma’s Manu Kone or Alex Scott of Bournemouth as alternatives to the Monaco man.

“If Chelsea move in January, they’d be getting ahead of the market to some degree, because if Alexis Mac Allister leaves Liverpool in summer 2027, then Liverpool are expected to be there for Camara, but they also like Manu Kone and Alex Scott as well,” he said.

“Now Monaco sources tell me that they want 70 million Euros for Camara, which was always their sort of ballpark, and then the argument within Monaco is it kind of came down to 55 because they had an urgency to sell at the point they thought Balogun was off, and then it was back on and then ironically it was off again.”

“So for Chelsea to return there, I don’t think it’s just about do they want the player, I think it’s about almost out of principle Monaco going to give them a better deal whether January or the summer than the 55 million they agreed.

“Their confidence in doing that will come from two things. The first that they believe Camara is now fine staying until the summer. Personally, I’m not so sure, if he gets the right opportunity, but that’s the Monaco perspective.

“And then the second thing in all of this is they believe by the summer or even in January if they change their mind about a mid-season sale they’ll get more of a bidding war, because like I said before Liverpool and some other clubs, I heard Bayern as well the other day, might be prepared to enter the race.

“My feeling is as of now that if that number goes above 55 million then Chelsea are unlikely to be there just because of the relationship with Monaco,” Jacobs added. “But if it drops lower to the point where they come back and get a better deal out of it, then you can never say never. And as you say, they may decide by January that they do have the urgency to bring in another mid-season midfielder.”

With Monaco seemingly unwilling to sell to Chelsea at near-enough any cost, Liverpool can benefit and potentially get Camara for below asking price. In today’s market, though, £60m for a player who could potentially fix their midfield issues singlehandedly is not an insurmountable amount to pay.

This article first appeared on Rousing the Kop and was syndicated with permission.