Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho is reportedly plotting a defensive overhaul in the summer, as per the Times, in order to give his side the platform to make a title challenge next season.
One of the names who featured heavily in that report was Samuel Umtiti, Barcelona’s French international defender who has a reported release clause of £52.8m.
His pace and athleticism would make him a perfect left-footed partner for Eric Bailly at the heart of United’s defence and would allow Mourinho to make a decision on Phil Jones, Marcos Rojo and Chris Smalling.
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However, there have been concerns that the defender is just using the empty threat of a move to United to engineer an improved contract, in a similar way to Sergio Ramos did during the reign of Louis van Gaal.
Those fears will only be exacerbated by Umtiti’s latest quotes, reported by the Express, in which he appears concerned about the presence of a low release clause that could allow Mourinho to swoop. He said:
“My clause isn’t that high, everyone knows it. It’s something that concerns me, but I don’t particularly care about it right now.
“However, everything happens very quickly in the world we live in. All I can say is that I’m very happy here.”