Chelsea ‘to go BACK IN for Enzo Fernandez’ before the end of the transfer window

Chelsea are reportedly once again stepping up their efforts to sign World Cup-winning midfielder Enzo Fernandez.

Having failed in their efforts to sign the Argentine earlier this month when his offer did not match Benfica’s demands, it was reported in Portugal that Chelsea will be back for the midfielder.

According to Record, the west London club have not given up hope of signing the midfielder and are planning a raid before this transfer window ends.

According to reports in Portugal, Chelsea will start their attempts to sign Enzo Fernandez again.

It is claimed that those responsible for managing Chelsea in the transfer market have not yet given up hope of signing Fernandez and will try to enter into negotiations once again.

Chelsea saw an offer worth £112 million, £6 million more than his release clause, rejected as it was structured to be paid in three installments totaling £37.3 million each over three years.

However, Benfica were optimistic in their stance despite Fernández’s very public attempts to leave the Portuguese club.

The Argentina international impressed at the World Cup and seemed destined for a move to Chelsea

Benfica itself issued a statement at the end of December insisting that Fernández would stay with them until the end of the 2022-23 campaign.

“SL Benfica clarifies that at no time did the president of the Club, Rui Costa, pronounce the words that are circulating in Italy on DAZN,” the club said.

Sport Lisboa e Benfica reiterates its intention to have the player Enzo Fernández until the end of the season.

Meanwhile, after the midfielder returned home to Argentina to ring in the New Year with family and friends, he was ruled out of Portimonense’s visit on the second weekend of the month.

Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital have looked to totally revamp Chelsea’s squad this month

Roger Schmidt, the head coach, told reporters that what he had done was “not right” but left the door ajar for his smooth return to the playing team.

‘Now you have a clean slate. He is our player, we count on him and we need him to be champions’, he said.

“What he did was not right, that’s why he wasn’t in the team today.”

Since then, he has played in both league games, including recording two assists as Benfica defeated Santa Clara 3-0 on Saturday.

His comments came just days after he accused the west London club of “disrespect” in their pursuit of Fernandez, pointing to the clause in his contract as the only realistic means by which they could sign him.

Roger Schmidt publicly criticized Fernández for returning to Argentina for the New Year celebrations

Myhailo Mudryk is one of several players who arrived for big money at Chelsea this month.

‘We don’t want to sell Enzo. Not me, not the president, nobody,” Schmidt said.

We know it, everyone knows it, he has a clause in his contract and if the player wants to leave and someone comes and pays the clause, of course we can’t work against that. Then maybe we lose the player.

There is a club that wants 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.

‘So it’s a very clear situation. What the club that wants to buy Enzo is doing is disrespectful against all of us, against Benfica and I cannot accept it.

“Making the player crazy, pretending that he can pay the clause and then wanting to negotiate, that is not what I understand of a good relationship between clubs that may want to discuss a player. So that’s what I can say about the whole Enzo thing.

If Chelsea were to sign Fernandez, their spending would top the £300m mark this month alone. They have already added Mykhailo Mudryk, Benoit Badiashile, Noni Madueke, Andrey Santos and Joao Felix (on loan) to a team currently sitting 10th in the Premier League. Christopher Nkunku will join from RB Leipzig in the summer.