Barcelona will abandon their pursuit of Fiorentina winger Juan Cuadrado if he does not join the club by Friday, according to reports in Spain.
Catalan publication Sport claims the La Liga giants are still hopeful of landing the Colombia international but are not willing to wait much longer and have no intention of dragging the saga into the weekend.
Stiff competition from fellow European heavyweights Bayern Munich means his arrival at the Nou Camp is far from certain but he will almost definitely leave the Serie A club during the summer transfer window.
The Viola will hold out for somewhere in the region of £33million after increasing his asking price in the light of his impressive performances in the World Cup.
He was one of Colombia’s stand-out players in their run to the quarter-finals of the competition, which saw them eventually knocked out by host nation Brazil in a narrow 2-1 defeat.
Juventus were also considered strong candidates to buy Cuadrado, but the shock departure of head coach Antonio Conte is thought to have caused them to slip down the pecking order.
Conte, who guided Juve to three successive Scudetto titles, resigned just one day after the start of pre-season training last week and was replaced 24 hours later by ex-AC Milan boss Massimiliano Allegri.
Cuadrado, who is said to have set his heart on what he views as a dream switch to Barca, scored 13 goals in 38 appearances for his club last term while also receiving 12 yellow cards and one red.