Benfica manger Roger Schmidt on Enzo Fernandez has announced that he could not stop Enzo Fernandez joining Chelsea now that his release clause has been met.
Fernandez is regarded as one of the finest talents in the game and a player that Chelsea have been chasing all January – but they have not been able to get a transfer deal done for the player as a fee could not be agreed.
However – with Chelsea looking to get one final transfer deal done – They have decided that they are now willing to meet his £106 million asking price and bring him to the Premier League.
And ahead of his arrival – Schmidt has admitted that he is helpless from seeing Fernandez leave: “We all know that we have a situation with Enzo that he has a clause in the contract, so that means if the player wants and there’s a club who pays this amount of money, you cannot stop that.
“Of course, for this moment, you have to be prepared, we have to find solutions, but at the moment, he’s our player, there’s no deal. We will see what happens in the next two days and I’m happy when the transfer window is closed and we can focus completely on the players in the squad and we can try to play a top season.”
Sky Sports News’ Mark McAdam has claimed that this is a huge deal for Chelsea:
“This is huge and it could get even bigger for Chelsea as they, once again, blow other Premier League clubs out of the water in terms of spending in this transfer window.
“Chelsea have bid around £106m, which is the release clause for Enzo Fernandez at Benfica.
“Now, this would be a British transfer record. We know that Chelsea and Benfica have been in talks for a number of weeks for the player, we know that Chelsea’s No. 1 target in this transfer window has been Enzo Fernandez, the World Cup winner, somebody who scored in the World Cup against Mexico, someone who at 22-years old, has a huge future in the game.
“All of the discussions over the last few weeks have been centred around Chelsea giving various players to Benfica and taking Enzo Fernandez back in return.
“However, the update is that they are willing to pay the realise clause. We know that the player wants to leave Benfica and join Chelsea, it’s now just a case of how they structure the payments for this deal.”