Jean Michael Seri’s release clause has reportedly expired with Nice, meaning Barcelona will have to splash a lot more of their Neymar money on him.

According to L’Equipe via Football.London, Seri’s release clause never really existed at all. It was reportedly an off-record agreement between the club and the player, that has now expired.

Barcelona have been growing closer to an agreement over the player according to reports. The Catalan club have already signed Paulinho from Guangzhou Evergrande, but their fans have called for further reinforcements in midfield, as 2016 signing André Gomes has been labelled as a disappointment.

What this means is that if Arsenal want to sign Seri, they will likely have to pay more than the £36m previously touted as the asking price. Same situation for Barcelona.

It’s possible that Seri has held off on confirming his future up until this stage because he wants to try and help Nice qualify for the Champions League. The French club have made it to the final qualification round with Seri’s help, but face Napoli in the final tie to make the group stages.

Unfortunately for Nice and Seri, they suffered a 2-0 defeat to the Italians in the first leg. The second leg is at home on Tuesday, but right now it doesn’t seem likely that Napoli will concede their advantage.

With the transfer deadline also fast approaching, the best guess would be that we may see further movement in the Seri situation later this week, when Champions League qualification is resolved.