Matty
Well-Known Member
Ronaldo left Sporting after 1 season, when he was 18, how many goals was he supposed to score exactly? Kane played for Norwich, Orient and Leicester before he was 20, so again, still a youth player. Shatov joined Zenit as a 23 year old, with 5 full seasons in the Russian league behind him. He was far more experienced than Kane is now, or than Sterling is now, or Ronaldo was when he joined United, and he'd done very little in that time to attract foreign clubs. Even if we ignore 5 full seasons of football and just look at Zenit, prior to this season he'd played 2 full seasons at Zenit, and only managed 11 goals in 76 appearances. Sterling scored 11 goals last season alone, and 10 the season before, all in a tougher league whilst as a teenager.Shatov's career really started at Zenit. His first club shouldn't be counted. Nor should Harry Kane's seasons at Norwich, Leyton Orient, Leicester, etc. Or should Ronaldo's time at Sporting Lisbon. Ronaldo has only scored 3 goals for his first club. As I said, talent is something that needs maturing. Harry Kane's talent matured last season for example. This season, especially for Shatov, he has been a beast. I don't keep have to repeating his achievements this season. An "average OK" player wouldn't have 1 goal 3 assists in 4 CL games for example, who has been involved in most amount of goals after Hulk and Ronaldo in this year's CL campaign.
Shatov's first club was a Siberian average relegation Russian club, where he originally comes from and a club with very limited resources. His 100+ caps there means jack shit. It was his talent that made big spenders like Anzhi, Zenit buy him.
As I said, Sterling and Shatov are not comparable yet. They both play in completely different leagues, to the point it's hard to draw a simple conclusion. Only way to make a comparison is if Zenit draw with City this year, which I hope so or Shatov comes to PL.
BTW, about the point of him leaving Russia. Lol, I think you would find all the Russians play in Russia. Only team in the WC 2014 with a team playing in their native country squad. Russia have some great players that would be playing for top European sides. Why? Because of the crazy wages in Russia. Now with Zenit, Shatov probably earns double/triple the money an average foreigner earns at the PL. So there's really not much incentive for him. But if he can perform very well as he is currently at the CL and the next Euro, I'm 100% he'll be coming to a top club. So don't use the argument of him still being at Russia. Only time Russians left their country was after Euro 2008, because top clubs showed interest in their players.
Filip Mladenović of BATE Borisov has scored 2 goals this season in the Champion's League, against top level opposition, and he's a left back, he must be absolutely World Class by your warped reckoning. I also notice you fail to mention Shatov's Champion's League goal came against that European powerhouse Gent, a side that would be in the bottom half of the Premier League.
You can't just discount over 100 of Shatov's appearances because they don't fit your narrative, he played in the top flight for Ural, they weren't some lower league side. Plus he only managed 5 goals in 51 appearances for Anzhi anyway, so hardly impressive.
Of course you can draw conclusions and comparisons between Shatov and Sterling. Yes, they play in different leagues, and the one Sterling plays in is obviously far tougher, yet he's done demonstrably far better. So, tougher league, better performances/returns = better player, the fact he's also 5 years younger and far less experienced just emphasises this fact.