Fiorentina reject £21 million Cuadrado bid - report

The Juan Cuadrado rumour is moving with almost frightening speed after emerging out of the blue on Monday. We've heard that the clubs are in talks, we had a (perhaps fake) sighting of the Colombia international at Anfield and now we're getting to the point in which papers throw out reports of rejected bids as throwaway lines.

The Daily Mail, for instance, just dropped the following in a story about Cuadrado's goal for Fiorentina today:

Chelsea have had a £20.6million bid rejected for the winger, with Fiorentina insisting they will not accept bids below the £26.8m release clause in the Colombian's contract.

Which is interesting, because while we've been hearing the second part for a couple of days now, I hadn't heard anything about a failed bid yet. Previous reports had made it sound as though the two teams had just started talking. Di Marzio, for instance, today has the Blues looking at a €30 million (that's £23 million) deal. Although the source is obviously questionable, if true this represents an intriguing new development.

Additional, the Mail have an interesting comment from Viola boss Vicenzo Montella:

To date, there is no chance that Cuadrado leaves Fiorentina. He knows that some things are exaggerated.

Note the wording (although this could be a translation artifact). 'Exaggerated' isn't the same as 'untrue' and 'to date' has no bearing on what might happen in the future. If it turns out that the two sides aren't working on a deal, I'd be pretty surprised.