
Benfica head coach Roger Schmidt has accused Chelsea of ‘disrespectful’ attempts to sign Enzo Fernandez.
“We do not want to sell Enzo,” Schmidt told a press conference on Thursday. “Not me, not the president, nobody.
“We know, everyone knows he has a clause in the 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 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 they can only get this player when they pay the clause.
“It is a very clear situation. What the club is doing, it is disrespectful against all of us, against Benfica and I cannot accept what they are doing.
“So to make the player crazy, and then to pretend they can pay the clause and then later they want to negotiate, it is not what I understands to be good relationship between clubs who want to discuss players.”
Fernandez has reportedly agreed personal terms with Chelsea and defied Benfica by returning to Argentina to celebrate New Year’s, missing training sessions in the process.
Schmidt added: “Enzo is a very good boy and a fantastic football player. We love him and hopes he stays at Benfica. But of course, the situation for him is not so easy, he played in the World Cup and became world champion and he got offers and there is 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 is something everyone can understand. But never the less he is a very good boy.
“He was not there last week, he did not have permission to go Argentina, he missed training and that is not acceptable so that is why he will have consequences. But I will not announce them now.”