Report: Samuel Umtiti Set to Remain at Barcelona as Man City, Man Utd Links Cool

Samuel Umtiti will reportedly be left with little choice but to sign a new deal at Barcelona after links to Manchester United and Manchester City turned out to have little validity. 

According to Luis F. Rojo of Marca, City manager Pep Guardiola has no space in his squad for another centre-back after signing Aymeric Laporte in January, while United boss Jose Mourinho "has no great interest in signing him" despite previous reports the Red Devils could offer Umtiti a €10 million-per-season (£8.8 million) deal. 

Rojo noted that City's suspicion was Umtiti was using them "to put pressure on Barcelona for his renewal" and that "everything indicates" he will remain at the Camp Nou.

Umtiti, 24, has enjoyed an impressive season, and he has established himself as one of the best centre-backs in Europe.

The revelation that his release clause is only €60 million (£53 million) prompted many of the rumours linking him with a departure. In the current market, that is a relatively cheap fee for a player of the France international's quality.

Many were left baffled as to how Barca could have allowed such a low release clause to be inserted in his contract in the first place, including Yahoo Sport UK's Andrew Gaffney:

The impression was that Barca were on the back foot and would have to give in to Umtiti's demands and persuade him to sign up to a new contract in which his release clause was increased to a prohibitively high figure.

However, per Rojo, Umiti has lost any leverage with which to push his "exorbitant economic pretensions" and the best he can hope for with the Catalan giants is a salary increase from €2 million per season net to €5 million. 

That is a large increase, and the idea Umtiti would be unhappy to remain at Barca is surely nonsense. 

Amid reports of interest from elsewhere, he previously said it was his "dream" to be a Barca player, telling  Canal FC (h/t Samuel Luckhurst of Manchester Evening News), "I'm very happy here."

That is hardly an indicator of a player desperate to leave a club. And while he could earn more money elsewhere, he arguably would have no better prospects for winning silverware than he does at Barca.

Umtiti has already won La Liga and two Copa del Reys despite having only moved to the club in 2016.

He has proved he could be a stalwart in the Barca first team for years to come, and he looks set to remain at the Camp Nou for the foreseeable future.