Chelsea have been accused of being disrespectful in their pursuit of Argentine midfielder Enzo Fernandez.
Benfica manager Roger Schmidt hit out at the Londoners, who have been frustrated in their attempts to land the World Cup-winning midfielder after talks between the clubs.
The Portuguese club do not want to sell the 21-year-old, who was named the best young player in Qatar, and underlined their stance by demanding that only full payment of his £106million buyout clause will seal a deal.
Chelsea have been in negotiations with Benfica over Argentine midfield star Enzo Fernandez© Provided by Daily Mail
Now Schmidt has suggested Chelsea have gone back on their word, saying: ‘We do not want to sell Enzo. Not me, not the president, nobody.
‘We know, everyone knows, he has a clause in his contract and if the player wants to leave and someone comes and pays the clause, of course we cannot work against that. Then maybe we will lose the player.
‘There is a club who wants our player. They know we don’t want to sell the player. They tried to get the player on their side and they know that they can only get this player when they pay the clause.
‘So it is a very clear situation. What the club who wants to buy Enzo is doing is disrespectful against all of us, against Benfica and I cannot accept it.
Benfica boss Roger Schmidt thinks Todd Boehly has no intention of paying Fernandez’s release clause© Provided by Daily Mail
‘To make the player crazy, pretend they can pay the clause and then want to negotiate, this is not what I understand about a good relationship between clubs who maybe want to discuss a player. So that’s what I can say about the whole topic of Enzo.’
Fernandez has told Benfica, who have made attempts to convince him to stay, he wants to leave for Chelsea.
He asked to be left out of their meeting with Braga last week amid Chelsea’s interest, but ended up being persuaded to play and got through 89 minutes of an embarrassing 3-0 defeat.
However, he defied club orders by returning to Argentina to celebrate the New Year and missed training in the process before returning to the club on Tuesday. Benfica are back in action tonight against Portimonense with Fernandez’s involvement unclear, amid concerns about the potential reaction there may be for him from supporters.
Schmidt has accused Chelsea of driving Fernandez crazy with their pursuit of him© Provided by Daily Mail
Chelsea have had success in the transfer window already this month and on Thursday confirmed the £35m capture of defender Benoit Badiashile from Monaco on a seven-and-a-half year deal.
Striker David Fofana has also joined from Molde and the club have finalised a deal for midfielder Andrey Santos from Vasco da Gama.
They have also held talks with Shakhtar Donetsk over winger Mykhailo Mudryk as they position themselves to hijack Arsenal’s attempts to sign the outstanding Ukrainian.
Source: dailymail
