Chelsea prepare Enzo Fernandez raid and refuse to give up on maligned transfer

Chelsea are reportedly plotting another mega-money offer for Benfica midfielder and Argentina international Enzo Fernandez before the end of the January transfer window.

The Blues have been linked with the World Cup breakout star all month but failed in the earlier efforts to secure his signature when their first official bid was swiftly rejected by the Portuguese giants. However, it has since emerged that Chelsea aren't keen on taking no for an answer and are readying a second official offer for the 22-year-old.

As per Portuguese outlet Record, those at the top of the Stamford Bridge hierarchy tasked with overseeing still harbour confidence an agreement can be reached between the two clubs and see Fernandez plying his trade in West London soon enough.

Though it is widely believed Fernandez wants out and is rumoured to have informed Benfica officials of that directly, the club remain adamant he is going nowhere for the remainder of the season unless a buyer activates his £105million release clause.

Benfica are so confident he's staying put that they actually released a statement confirming as much, it read: "SL Benfica clarifies that at no time did the President of the Club, Rui Costa, utter the words that are being circulated in Italy by DAZN.

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

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Fernandez was actually dropped by his club for the home clash against Portimonense earlier this month after he had returned to his home country to celebrate the New Year with his family, prompting an update from manager Roger Schmidt who explained his reasoning for briefly omitting the World Cup winner from the team.

"Now you have a clean slate. He is our player, we count on him and we need him to be champions," he added. "What he did wasn't right, that's why he wasn't in the team today."

Fernandez isn't the only one who has been publicly criticised by Schmidt, with the Benfica boss issuing a scathing response to Chelsea's first bid a few weeks back as he accused the Blues of 'disrespect'.

"We do not want to sell Enzo. Not me, not the president, nobody," Schmidt claimed. "We know, everyone knows, he has a clause in his 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 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 that they can only get this player when they pay the clause.

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