Leeds United chairman Massimo Cellino says that his side are no longer interested in signing forward Fernando Forestieri from Watford.
The Whites thrashed out a fee of between £3m and £4m with Watford for the Argentina-born player and then moved to open talks to take him to Elland Road.
But Forestieri dragged his feet on a deal and appeared not to want to move to Leeds.
Now Cellino has decided to pull the plug on the deal and told his club's official site in a statement: "We decided on Tuesday that we would not be signing Forestieri, it was clear he didn’t have the right mentality needed to come to Leeds.
"I want players to show a hunger and desire to come here – but he did not", the Italian businessman continued.
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"It was not about the money. A player could cost £3m, £5m or be a free transfer, but if their mentality isn’t right then I will not sign them for Leeds."
Cellino insists that while summer arrivals Chris Wood, Tom Adeyemi and Stuart Dallas were desperate to sign for the club, Forestieri was not. He also paid tribute to midfielder Luke Murphy, who took a pay cut to sign a new long term contract at Elland Road.
And the club's owner vowed only to sign players who are desperate to pull on the white shirt.
"Players like Wood, Adeyemi and Dallas are what we need here – they gave everything to show that they wanted to join Leeds. Look at Murphy, he showed a great commitment to the club.
"All our new signings showed that they really wanted to play for Leeds.
"We are building a team of players with the same attitude and the mentality needed to make Leeds successful again.
"Forestieri did not show that and we have moved on. We ended the deal on Tuesday and we are now looking at different players", Cellino concluded.
