‘That is the problem’ – Arsenal and Man United scouts urged to wait for Brazilian talent

Manchester United and Arsenal target Kaua Elias’ movement is terrific – he can go a long way.

That is the verdict of European football expert Andy Brassell, who hailed the Shakhtar Donetsk striker for his start to the season.

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Man United and Arsenal scouts were reportedly in attendance to watch Elias score a ‘perfect’ hat-trick at the start of last week.

Representatives for the two Premier League giants were in the stands for Shakhtar’s first league game against Kudrivka.

Man United and Arsenal scouts watch summer target Kaua Elias 

Elias, who is said to be valued at £30million and is also being eyed by Serie A giants AC Milan, took home the matchball in a 5-1 demolition.

However, Brassell wants to see the 20-year-old cut his teeth in the Champions League first instead of making the move this summer.

Shakhtar punched their ticket automatically for the league phase due to having the highest coefficient of all the clubs currently top of their domestic leagues from associations 11–55, since last season’s finalists Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal have already qualified via their domestic league position.

It will be Elias’ first appearance in the Champions League, having only arrived at Hirnyky (The Pitmen) in February 2025 from Fluminense.

On the small sample size involved, Brassell exclusively told talkSPORT: “I think that is the problem.

“Like when you look at Shakhtar’s golden era – going back into the Mircea Lucescu years, when they were still in Donetsk.

“Then it was different because Shakhtar were a genuinely huge club that was on its way to becoming a European superpower, and I think you knew from the quality, not just the quality of the Ukrainian league then but the quality of their performances in the Champions League, that you were getting guys that were ready to go.

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“So when you bought a Fernandinho, [or] Willian – they were like ready now,” Brassell continued to talkSPORT.com.

“It’s so hard to judge the level effectively of Ukrainian domestic football now through no fault of Ukraine’s own or through no fault Shakhtar’s obviously but that they are really living in extraordinary times and very difficult conditions and Shakhtar in a league with a lot of teams that would not be anywhere near the Premier League, if we were comparing it, which I’m always bit loathe to do.

“But the reality is Ukraine is not one of the top leagues at the moment, so I think you need to see them a little bit more in European competition.

“That’s certainly the case with Kaua Elias.

“His movements terrific. I really like what I’ve seen of him, but again, I want to see him in the Champions League first.”

Elias scored twice in five Europa League qualifying appearances last term, before finding the net the same number of times in Shakhtar’s run to the Conference League semi-finals.

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The Brazil Under-17 international registered an assist in the 3-1 home defeat to eventual tournament winners Crystal Palace in April.

But on Shakhtar’s return to the Champions League, Brassell added: “To see them in that sort of context would be really important.

“Now bear in mind, say when Kevin came over to Fulham, and that’s Fulham, not Arsenal or United, we’d seen some of him in European competition.

“So you knew that not only what he was able to do in there in the Ukrainian Premier League, but you’d seen a bit of him in Europe and you thought okay, this is something we can work with here.

“But this is Shakhtar’s model now, to go out and buy really young players from Brazil, so a sort of accelerated version of the model that they used to do when they were in Donetsk and be able to inflate them into players that they can sell for three/four times that sort of money.

“Of course, they need to sell to survive, whereas before it was about selling to satisfy the dreams of those players and go and buy the next lot of players.

“It wasn’t such a financial imperative because they were in a better financial position. The owner, Rinat Akhmetov, was in a better financial position.

“The country was in a better financial position, and the league was in a better financial position.

“But a great start to the season for Kaua; I think he can go a long way, but yeah, I need to see him in the Champions League first.”