Benfica manager Roger Schmidt has stated that the Portuguese giants will "restart" with Enzo Fernandez amid Chelsea's unrelenting pursuit of the Argentina midfielder.
The 21-year-old has emerged as one of the hottest properties on the winter market after being named the Best Young Player of the 2022 World Cup with La Albiceleste.
Real Madrid, Liverpool and Chelsea have all been tipped to do battle with one another for the services of Fernandez, and the Blues quickly jumped to the head of the queue.
However, with Fernandez under contract with the Eagles until the end of the 2026-27 season, Chelsea have supposedly been told to pay the entirety of his £112m release clause to sign him this month.
The Blues are said to have shown a willingness to fork out the desired sum, but their desire to pay the £112m fee in instalments to comply with Financial Fair Play rules has not sat well with those in Lisbon.
© Reuters
A report from the Evening Standard states that the move is now "botched", and Benfica are expecting to retain Fernandez's services until the end of the season.
The former River Plate man was left out of Benfica's squad for Friday's win over Portimonense after missing training, but Schmidt has insisted that he can still "count" on Fernandez for the rest of the season.
"It's clear what Enzo Fernandez did wasn't right, that's why he wasn't in the team. Now we restart from zero with Enzo. He will be back today, we count on him - he's our player, we need Enzo," Schmidt told reporters after hitting out at Chelsea's pursuit of the player the day before the victory over Portimonense.
"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," the Benfica boss added.
"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.
© Reuters
"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 understand to be a good relationship between clubs who want to discuss players."
Fernandez, who has supposedly already agreed to personal terms with Chelsea, has recorded three goals and five assists in 25 matches for Benfica since joining from River Plate in the summer.
Chelsea have already completed deals for Andrey Santos, David Datro Fofana and Benoit Badiashile this month, with Datro Fofana and Santos's arrivals being confirmed on Saturday.
However, the pair are expected to be loaned out in January, leaving N'Golo Kante, Jorginho, Mateo Kovacic, Denis Zakaria, Conor Gallagher, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Carney Chukwuemeka as Graham Potter's midfield options.
Ben Knapton
