Friday Poll: Do you believe Daniele Pradè about Rodrigo de Paul?

At his press conference this morning, Fiorentina DS Daniele Pradè dealt an apparent death blow to the months-long rumor that his charges were all-in on Udinese star Rodrigo de Paul. The Argentina international sparkled last year in Serie A, scoring 9 goals and assisting 8 more for the Zebrette, and impressed in the Copa America this summer as well. He hit the ground running this year, too, coming off the bench to assist the winner against AC Milan last week.

However, the Viola DS flatly told the press this morning, “Fiorentina [is] not signing de Paul,” in the face of the €30ish million that Udinese are demanding. There’s not really a lot of wiggle room in that statement, obviously, unless you think that Pradè is a liar; if he is, this could be an effort to drive down the price for the wantaway attacker, who was linked to a move to Florence last year as well (in fact, when Pradè was the DS at Udinese).

So what do you think? The Skinny Ninja isn’t averse to a move late in the window: guys like Stefan Savić, Milan Badelj, Dennis Praet, and Joachim Andersen all signed right near the end of the window in his previous stops. On the other hand, he’s always been fairly straightforward with the media, so it feels unlikely that he’d resort to subterfuge here.

Here’s your weekend thread for whatever’s rattling around inside your mind. Stay loose.