Young Kazakh player Dastan Satpayev exited the Carrow Road pitch a frustrated individual after putting in a shift that would have been worthy of all three points, if he hadn’t been let down by nine of his ten team mates, who don’t seem to have grasped what their clever new manager, Nicky Hayen, wants of them yet.
Sure, it happens. How many jobs can people walk into and perform at their peak from the get-go? It’s not as if Hayen’s a waiter. It can take time (ironically, for a non-waiter).
But waiting is not something football fans are so keen to do in the modern game, and to say Burnley were on the wrong end of a drubbing away at Norwich City is an understatement. It was a pasting, a walloping. They were taken to the cleaners. Thrashed. Trounced. Thumped. Exposed. Given a footballing lesson. Blown out of the water. Soundly beaten. The Canaries ran rings round Burnley. They wiped the floor with them!
Sports journalist Matt Scrafton headlined his article in the Burnley Express thus:
Shambolic Clarets serve up inexcusable display
and later referred to the anger of the fans, many of whom we already know see Dastan Satpayev as the only positive to come from the season so far.
“Angry boos rang out from the away end!”
ESPN referred to the Lancashire side as struggling, with no wins three matches into a season which promised so much. They haven’t won a game in the league now since February, and the fans are annoyed – but those same fans have already come to love the new signing from Almaty.
Matt Scrafton agrees, in another article stating:
“A word also for Dastan Satpayev, who put many of his teammates to shame with a mature display aged just 18.”
Dastan Satpayev can only do so much; he can’t defend, win the ball, beat defenders, distribute the ball, and score all at the same time – and if he doesn’t get the service, he can’t score anyway. He can’t do all the running for his outfield teammates.
His rating yesterday was the highest (or second highest depending on the source) of all the Burnley side, but it didn’t matter – by 21 minutes they were already 3-0 down, a deficit you very rarely see overturned in this sport.
Yet he kept trying, running, looking for openings, trying to break through a Norwich defence that was in no mood to hand out freebies.
Coach, Nicky Hayen made it clear that he doesn’t consider his new Kazakh loan signing to be part of the reason for the poor start the Clarets have made to the season, hinting that ‘the lad done good’:
“I can understand the frustration of the fans after what happened last season – and how we have started this one – but we need time.
“It shouldn’t be the case that the best player on the pitch for us is an 18-year-old making his way in the game.”
This last comment was clearly a reference to Dastan Satpayev, who seems to be carrying a poor side at the moment, almost single-handedly.
This is to his credit, and to Kazakhstan’s credit, in its own way, and lovers of football over in this amazing country are right behind their prized export, but it’s sad to see the majestic talent leave the pitch so frustrated when he is putting in effort that deserves so much more.
Nicky Hayen sought to reassure fans that this is a work in progress and, to coin a footballing phrase once more, that they ‘will keep plugging away.’
“It has been a tough start, but I am optimistic we will turn things around.”
Perhaps if the other players work as hard as their new Kazakh teammate, Hayen’s optimism might prove true – before it’s too late.
