“Official” – Romano confirms Chelsea follow Man City; complete striker signing | OneFootball

Manchester City broke new ground when they signed Abdukodir Khusanov from Lens in January. He became the first Uzbek player to play in the Premier League when he made a (rather calamitous) debut against Chelsea.

Thank got the Blues are so kind as to let his mistake in that game not end up costing his team anyway.

Well, where Man City lead, this modern Chelsea tend to follow. And that includes Central Asia. According to Fabrizio Romano, the Blues have just signed young striker Dastan Satpaev from Kairat Almaty in Kazakhstan.

He will cost €4m, with add ons included, signing a 5 year deal with a 1 year club option. It’s (unsurprisingly), the record deal for the Kazakh league, but the forward will stay with Kairat Almaty until his 18 birthday. He’s already started making appearances for them at senior level, as well as in the UEFA Youth League, so we will keep an eye on his progress in the next couple of years for you.

Sporting directors continue to think too far ahead

Dastan Satpaev in action for Kazakhstan’s youth teams.

We’re all in favour of Chelsea scouting and signing the best young talents in the world. The more obscure the country the better, as far as we’re concerned. The issue is the optics – Chelsea have been crying out for a regular, reliable number 9 for years, and yet progression of signings in recent years has gone from Nicolas Jackson (raw) to Marc Guiu (even more raw) to Satpaev (literally a 16 year old Kazakh kid).

That’s no knock on any of them, but does it really feel like we’re closing on a solution to our goalscoring issues? Or are we planning for them to be solved in 2030? Given the circumstances, both short and medium term, this is just not what the fans want to hear.