Folarin Balogun's failed transfer a disaster for all involved

How close was it to getting over the line?

Very close, right up until the end. By most accounts, Everton, Monaco and Balogun had agreed to terms and were simply waiting on Balogun to pass a routine medical check.

Was that medical check the thing that derailed the transfer?

It would appear so, yes. Reports soon emerged that Balogun had failed Everton's medical examination. This could mean anything—Monaco could've misrepresented an existing injury or Everton could've found potential for a long-term recurring injury during its process—but what matters is that Everton got spooked. It didn't cancel Balogun's transfer outright, but it did attempt to renegotiate its terms.

How did Monaco take that?

Not well at all, by most accounts.

Monaco needed to sell Balogun for two reasons: it was reliant upon the transfer fee it would receive for him and it needed him to leave in order to free up a non-European Union roster spot for its incoming Mexican star Erik Lira. Everton's last-second renegotiation—in the final hours of the final day of the transfer window, no less—threw all of that into jeopardy for Monaco.

Desperate for both the fee and the roster spot and worried about the viability of Balogun's move, Monaco hastily agreed to sell its Senegalese midfielder Lamine Camara to Chelsea instead. Chelsea had attempted to sign Camara as a replacement for Enzo Fernandez earlier in the window, but Monaco had not been willing to negotiate.

What did Everton do when it found that out?

It attempted to get the Balogun deal done anyway. Everton requested a two-hour extension to the transfer window to renegotiate terms with Balogun and Monaco. That extension calmed Monaco's nerves, and it cancelled Camara's move to Chelsea—leaving Chelsea without a new midfielder as the transfer window closed. Chelsea, as you can probably imagine, was livid.

And that extension didn't wind up helping?

Nope. Balogun was actually at Everton while this was happening, and reports soon emerged that he walked away from the negotiations on his own. We're still learning why, but early reports point to Balogun feeling unwelcome and unwanted after Everton's last-second reversals.

So where does this leave all the clubs?

Everton is stuck with just one striker—French international Thierno Barry—until the transfer window opens up again in January. That's an impossible state of affairs for a Premier League club. Everton's fans have revolted against the club's leaders for their handling of the Balogun situation.

Monaco will retain Balogun and Camara, but it will have to go without their transfer fees—estimated to be around $50 million apiece—in the short term. It will also have to move forward without Lira, because it wasn't able to free up roster space to green-light his transfer.

Chelsea was a relatively innocent casualty in all this, but it will have to move forward without Camara as an Enzo Fernandez replacement, and it is (rightfully) not happy about the mismanagement that led to that reality.

And Balogun? He'll stay at Monaco, but it's unclear just how much playing time he'll receive there. That's bad news for him, as it will likely lower his value in the transfer market, and it's bad news for the USMNT, too. If Balogun isn't getting regular minutes, then he won't be ready to lift the team like he did at the World Cup this summer.