Barcelona decided several weeks ago not to proceed with their interest in Juan Cuadrado. The decision was taken, principally, for economic reasons. There had already been a great deal of investment this summer and a figure of around €40 million was considered too much.

Ezzio Rossi

What then happened is that the player refused to throw in the towel on his wish to move to Barça. And so it has been reported, by 'calciomercato.it', that Cuadrado's agent, Alessandro Lucci, called the Catalan club on Monday to let them know his client was still keen to be involed in Luis Enrique's project.

The problem is that for him to get involved, Lucci asked for Barça to make a formal offer to Fiorentina - without which, evidently, there would be no movement. The answer could not have been more disappointing, because the Blaugrana didn't have any intention of making an offer.

Douglas had emerged as the only name on the table to bring in as a right-back, with the deal eventually going through late on Tuesday evening for the Sao Paulo player. Cuadrado's SOS fell on deaf ears.

It is now most likely that the Colombian international will stay at Fiorentina, although there are several days left in the transfer market. Most of the summer it had seemed, however, that he would end up at Barça.

Cuadrado did all he could to open the door to a move to La Liga. In fact, this past week, he made one last attempt to get the transfer back on track: "There is still time," he told the Italian media.

Camp Nou ignored his pleas - they had long since decided not to move for the player. He had been a very serious option for a long time, but the way his price tag rocketed after the World Cup meant it was not convenient to follow through with.

Fiorentina were never willing to lower the price and Barça, as well as other clubs, have instead pursued cheaper alternatives.