Benfica’s Schmidt angered by Chelsea: Make Fernández ‘crazy’

“Don’t want to sell it”

Benfica coach Roger Schmidt is upset with Chelsea’s approach to courting Enzo Fernández (21). “They drive the player crazy, pretend they can pay the clause and later they want to negotiate. That’s not what I mean by a good relationship between clubs talking about a player,” said the German coach at a press conference on Thursday.

The 55-year-old “can’t accept” the way the Blues act and describes Chelsea’s behavior as “disrespectful”. “They tried to get the player but they know they will only get him if they pay the clause. The situation is simple,” he said. Fernández can be signed for 120 million euros. According to reports, Chelsea does not want to pull the clause, otherwise there would be penalties from financial fair play – if the clause were activated, the full transfer fee would be due in one installment.

It had been reported that the Blues were even willing to pay up to €127m if Benfica would accept multiple installments. Journalist Fabrizio Romano said that the official offer from England never exceeded 85 million euros. According to consistent media reports, the negotiations have been broken off after a meeting on Wednesday – another meeting is initially not planned. “We don’t want to sell him. Not me, not the President – nobody. Everyone knows he has a clause in his contract. If the player wants to leave and a club comes that pays the clause, then we can’t do anything about it,” said Schmidt.

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