Benfica coach Roger Schmidt has labelled Chelsea’s pursuit of Enzo Fernandez ‘disrespectful’.
Chelsea, who as we speak confirmed the signing of Monaco defender Benoit Badiashile, wish to add Fernandez to their ranks earlier than the top of the January switch window.
The midfielder joined Benfica in August earlier than occurring to win the World Cup with Argentina in December, and he has a launch clause of roughly £106million.
Discussing Chelsea’s method for the 21-year-old, German Schmidt stated per the BBC: “What the club is doing who wants Enzo, it’s disrespectful against all of us, against Benfica, and I cannot accept what they are doing.
“To make the player crazy, and then to pretend they can pay the clause and later they want negotiate, I think is not what I understand about a good relationship between clubs who maybe want to discuss about the player.
“Enzo, we don’t want to sell him, nobody wants to sell him at this club. Everybody knows he has a clause in his contract and, of course, if the player wants to leave and somebody comes and pays the clause, we cannot work against that. So, then maybe we will lose the player.
“There’s a club who want 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 only can get this player when they pay the clause. So, it’s a very clear situation.”
Fernandez, ought to he be a part of Chelsea, would grow to be the Premier League membership’s third signing of this switch window. Alongside Badiashile, the Blues have additionally recruited Molde striker David Datro Fofana.
Enzo Fernandez celebrates Argentina’s World Cup ultimate win over France in Qatar
(Getty Images)
Graham Potter’s aspect are languishing in tenth on the time of writing, forward of a night conflict with second-placed Manchester City.
Elaborating on the scenario round Fernandez, Schmidt stated: “First of all, Enzo is a very good boy and a fantastic football player. We like him a lot and, of course, we want that he stays at Benfica.
“Of course, the situation for him is not so easy because he played the World Cup, he became world champion, he got offers, and there’s a lot of money on the table.
“In this situation as a young player, you think about that, [it can] confuse you a little bit. I think that everybody can understand, but nevertheless he’s a very good boy.
“He was not [in training] last week, he had no permission to go to Argentina. He missed the training, so that is not acceptable [and] that’s why it will have consequences.”
