AS Roma are looking to either increase or remove Kostas Manolas’ release clause, in an attempt to get more money out of any potential suitors, according to reports in Italy.

Manolas has been linked with a number of clubs around Europe, with the Mirror listing Arsenal, Manchester United, Bayern Munich and Juventus as possible destinations for him. Part of the appeal is his £31.5m release clause, which isn’t a particularly large sum to pay for a top defender nowadays.

However, Corriere dello Sport (via Mirror) report that Roma want to either increase the release clause to £43.7m or remove it altogether, ahead of the summer transfer window. Manolas’ current deal lasts until 2022, but talks with sporting director Monchi over an extension are seemingly going well.

Manolas isn’t having his best season at the moment anyway. WhoScored rate his Serie A performances at the lowest they’ve been in the last five campaigns, and he was recently part of the Roma side on the wrong end of a 7-1 cup defeat to Fiorentina.

Things are going a little better in the Champions League, where Roma are 2-1 up in their last-16 tie against Porto, but the Italians already lost twice to Real Madrid in the group stage, 3-0 and 2-0, whilst also suffering an embarrassing defeat to Viktoria Plzen.

That’s not all down to Manolas, and if the 27-year-old can rediscover his form from 2014 to 2017 he’d still be well worth a £31.5m offer. If he doesn’t improve and his release clause goes up or disappears completely though, Arsenal would be better off spending that kind of money elsewhere.