Well we are the ones to blame for this. Why the fuck do you put 60m price tag on any player? Just put 1bn and you’ll save yourself from a lot of trouble.
And yea, the guy who put 60 million release clause in his contract should be shot.
Yes, nowadays Umtiti's clause is too low and it's easy to blame the club for that but things are not that simple.
I'm sure Barça would gladly put higher clauses to all of their players contracts but how many players would sign contracts with unrealistic clauses (especially if they also don't come with much higher wages)? Players/their agents wants to keep their options open if circumstances changes. Release clauses are meant to be working in players favour so they have more negotiating power than clubs. It's La Liga's fault to not protect their clubs better and get rid of release clauses. La Liga has lost a lot of good players because of them.
It's easy to be smart in hindsight but when Umtiti signed I don't think his clause was set too low both based on his expected role in the team and market. He was signed as a backup to Masche with a HOPE to become a starter but nobody knew if he'd really make it. Other players like Digne, Cillessen, Denis who were also signed in summer 2016 have similar clauses but nobody is complaining they are too low because they have not made it as starters. Gomes and Paco have higher clauses but both wanted to get out of Valencia so they were prepared to sign contracts with higher clauses and they were also more proven at that time. Paco has played 13 games for Spain and Gomes was a starter for Portugal NT at the start of Euro 2016 before Umtiti even made his NT debut. And for that to happen he needed Mathieu's injury and Rami's suspension.
Another thing, world record transfer fee in June 2016 was 100M€ (Pogba was sold for 105M in August). Most expensive CB at that time was David Luiz and Rio Ferdinand's transfer from Leeds to United in 2002 was still second on that list. A month after we bought Umtiti City paid around 55M€ for John Stones but that was a transfer inside EPL, where prices are always inflated, especially when it comes to British players.
Umtiti's role has changed and his clause would be nowadays low even in "June 2016" market because he's now an established starter for Barça and NT and I'm sure club had plans to adress that even before last summer. But something that nobody could realistically expect was there would be a 200% inflation on the market in just one year thanks to Q$G and Neymar so now prices of almost all players have doubled which means getting Umtiti for 60M even a bigger steal than before.
Anyway, I'm pretty sure this is just usual Sport BS during NT break and Umtiti will renew after World Cup or maybe even before that.