Manchester City have sealed the signing of Lens defender Abdukodir Khusanov in a £34million move.
It is the first of City's expected huge January spending, with summer transfer plans brought forward by Pep Guardiola and Director of Football Txiki Begiristain after the Premier League champions' disappointing start to the season - with £250m committed to re-energising the squad.
Uzbekistan international Khusanov has agreed a deal until 2029 and becomes the first Uzbeki to play in the English top flight.
He said: "I'm absolutely delighted to be joining Manchester City, a club that I have enjoyed watching for a long time. This squad is full of the best players in the world, and I can’t wait to meet them and play alongside them. And of course Pep Guardiola is one of the greatest coaches ever and I am so excited to learn from him and improve my game even more.
"This is a very proud moment for me and my family to be joining a great club like Manchester City and I’m more than ready for this challenge."
Begiristain added: "We are very happy that he has joined us and we are all very excited about what he will bring. For such a young defender, Abdukodir is already very intelligent, as well as being strong, aggressive and extremely quick.
"Working with Pep will only make him better and, speaking to him, he is determined to keep improving. He is a really exciting signing as we aim to keep progressing to maintain one of the best squads in Europe."
Khusanov is the first piece of City's January puzzle, with Eintracht Frankfurt striker Omar Marmoush to follow imminently.
Marmoush, who has 15 Bundesliga goals to his name so far this term, said his farewells at Frankfurt over the weekend and is arriving in a £68million deal. Brazilian teenage centre-back Vitor Reis, of Palmeiras, and Juventus ’ Italian international full-back Andrea Cambiaso are also set to arrive, while River Plate sensation Claudio Echeverri is also linking up with the club after the South American Under-20 Championships.
Throw in Erling Haaland's new contract, and City have made bold moves - something which Guardiola insisted over the weekend was a necessity.
“We are going to try to do something right now when we were going to do it in the summer," he admitted. “It has advanced a few months because of the situation. We would not be doing it (buying new players) if our players were fit but today I think we have two central defenders, no more than that, and with our holding midfielders we are struggling.
“The situation means we have to do it sooner rather than later. After eight years together we have so many players who are more than thirty years old and the other reason is the amount of problems we have with players’ availability. It is an absolutely normal process, especially because we’ve spent less than eleven teams in the Premier League in the last five years.
“All the big clubs in the Premier League have done it - and now, because our players are not consistent, we have to add players. We have no other option. We don’t have alternatives.