Amir Batyrev

[Obinna]

13 minutes ago, Shway said:

Coaching staff just doesn't rate RPL @Obinna... because if they did Ennin would've got a call when he was performing there and when we were thin up top.

Ennin the forgotten man. Thanks for the reminder Shway. Forgot about that dude entirely. It was a little surprising he didn't at least get a chance last cycle, even with all our attackers.

What's Amir's profile anyways? Central player I assume. Could be easier, assuming we are considering RPL players at all.

[Footyeh]

1 hour ago, Shway said:

Coaching staff just doesn't rate RPL @Obinna... because if they did Ennin would've got a call when he was performing there and when we were thin up top.

Would be very ignorant.  The quality of the teams in that league is top

[InglewoodJack]

Think it mostly comes down to these players not being worth the potential controversy of bringing in players who play in Russia. Richie Ennin last played for Budapest Honved, where he was a quasi-starter, and they got relegated last year where he didn't exactly light the league on fire either. He was apparently returned to FK Spartaks of Latvia, but I can't find any evidence that he's actually playing or training with them, and even if he is, Latvia has one of the weakest leagues in Europe. Batyrev has started like 4 total games in his entire career as well. Neither guy is going to radically change our program, one guy definitely isn't good enough for us, and Batyrev might be good, but his only other option is to cap for a team that isn't allowed to play any meaningful games anyways, so we can afford to wait for him to leave Russia.

We have to keep in mind that we had to cancel a friendly against Iran because it was deemed insensitive to the Ukrainian community. Canada has the largest number of Ukrainians anywhere in the world outside of Ukraine and Russia. This is a war that is deeply personal to more Canadians than it is to Jamaicans and Luxembourgers. Not to mention, the guys that Lux and Jamaica called up are scoring goals for Spartak Moscow, one of the big Russian clubs vs. Batyrev and formerly Ennin played for much smaller clubs. Plus, this isn't the RSL from 7-8 years ago that was in the mix as a top European league. They've lost significant quality due to many foreign players leaving due to the war. If our next Davies was playing for Zenit I think the conversation is different, but I just don't think the guys we have who have played in Russia are worth the fall out of the CBC article about how the CSA directly put money into Putin's hands by paying for Batyrev's flight to training camp.

 

[Corazon]

If he can become a regular starter for Sochi, I think he has to be considered.  But @InglewoodJackis correct and this league isn't the same quality as 5 to 10 years ago.  Like Ennin before him though, I don't think we can have too many quarrels whether he is included or not, especially given the geopolitics involved.  FWIW, the Russian league is ranked very similar to the Romanian, Swedish & Polish Leagues where we have Canadian's playing; some that are far off from the National Team, some regulars and some in between.

[Obinna]

24 minutes ago, Corazon said:

If he can become a regular starter for Sochi, I think he has to be considered.  But @InglewoodJackis correct and this league isn't the same quality as 5 to 10 years ago.  Like Ennin before him though, I don't think we can have too many quarrels whether he is included or not, especially given the geopolitics involved.  FWIW, the Russian league is ranked very similar to the Romanian, Swedish & Polish Leagues where we have Canadian's playing; some that are far off from the National Team, some regulars and some in between.

There is no denying some foreign players have cancelled their contracts (with FIFA's approval), but I am skeptical those rankings hold weight.

Correct me if I am wrong, but aren't those rankings based on how clubs do in European competition? If EPL clubs are temporarily suspended from play in UCL, UEL, or Conference league, the RPL ranking is artificially lowered, no?

Edited August 10, 2023 by Obinna

[Obinna]

1 hour ago, InglewoodJack said:

Think it mostly comes down to these players not being worth the potential controversy of bringing in players who play in Russia. Richie Ennin last played for Budapest Honved, where he was a quasi-starter, and they got relegated last year where he didn't exactly light the league on fire either. He was apparently returned to FK Spartaks of Latvia, but I can't find any evidence that he's actually playing or training with them, and even if he is, Latvia has one of the weakest leagues in Europe. Batyrev has started like 4 total games in his entire career as well. Neither guy is going to radically change our program, one guy definitely isn't good enough for us, and Batyrev might be good, but his only other option is to cap for a team that isn't allowed to play any meaningful games anyways, so we can afford to wait for him to leave Russia.

We have to keep in mind that we had to cancel a friendly against Iran because it was deemed insensitive to the Ukrainian community. Canada has the largest number of Ukrainians anywhere in the world outside of Ukraine and Russia. This is a war that is deeply personal to more Canadians than it is to Jamaicans and Luxembourgers. Not to mention, the guys that Lux and Jamaica called up are scoring goals for Spartak Moscow, one of the big Russian clubs vs. Batyrev and formerly Ennin played for much smaller clubs. Plus, this isn't the RSL from 7-8 years ago that was in the mix as a top European league. They've lost significant quality due to many foreign players leaving due to the war. If our next Davies was playing for Zenit I think the conversation is different, but I just don't think the guys we have who have played in Russia are worth the fall out of the CBC article about how the CSA directly put money into Putin's hands by paying for Batyrev's flight to training camp.

 

I think you are right in a broad sense. Ennin was somewhat a surprise at the time, but it wasn't a shocker and the political situation may have played a role. If he were killing it with a top club then we would have gotten to see how much of a role it played, because even with a settled squad a guy lighting it up for Zenit or Spartak would have been in our team. Ugbo was introduced in our team and he wasn't even killing it for Genk, a club that's roughly in the same ball park as the top RPL clubs.

Would have to agree with @Corazonhowever when he says that Amir should be considered if he is a starter at Sochi. We don't have much depth in midfield so lower threshold to break in than Ennin faces. Plus he is young.

Right now you're probably right that it's probably not worth rocking the boat (if that's even a factor), but to me it seems like he's at least on the path for consideration based on how much he's been playing.

Edited August 10, 2023 by Obinna

[InglewoodJack]

56 minutes ago, Obinna said:

I think you are right in a broad sense. Ennin was somewhat a surprise at the time, but it wasn't a shocker and the political situation may have played a role. If he were killing it with a top club then we would have gotten to see how much of a role it played, because even with a settled squad a guy lighting it up for Zenit or Spartak would have been in our team. Ugbo was introduced in our team and he wasn't even killing it for Genk, a club that's roughly in the same ball park as the top RPL clubs.

Would have to agree with @Corazonhowever when he says that Amir should be considered if he is a starter at Sochi. We don't have much depth in midfield so lower threshold to break in than Ennin faces. Plus he is young.

Right now you're probably right that it's probably not worth rocking the boat (if that's even a factor), but to me it seems like he's at least on the path for consideration based on how much he's been playing.

I can't say that I'm an expert on RSL, but even if he's a starter for Sochi, where would that realistically place him in the depth chart, assuming that RSL is still a top 10 league, which I don't believe it is, but if that's the case? Would he slot ahead of even Liam Fraser now that Fraser is in Dallas? I think I trust MLS over Russia now unless it's one of the former champions league teams in Moscow or St. Pete. Rhetorical question because I think we all know where Fraser slots, but now that he's at a good club, maybe his minutes are justified?

He's a 21 year old midfielder playing in a top division European league, I think at the very least that is worth monitoring. There's also the issue with how this impacts him. How would Russia feel about a Russian kid playing and living in Russia playing internationally for Canada, a country that at the very least the Russian government believes they are at war with, all while playing in Russia? With a lot of the sketchy stuff that happens across soccer, it would not surprise me if that would impact his playing time at Sochi. I'm not even sure if the RSL still takes international breaks either, but I have no clue about that.

[Corazon]

1 hour ago, Obinna said:

There is no denying some foreign players have cancelled their contracts (with FIFA's approval), but I am skeptical those rankings hold weight.

Correct me if I am wrong, but aren't those rankings based on how clubs do in European competition? If EPL clubs are temporarily suspended from play in UCL, UEL, or Conference league, the RPL ranking is artificially lowered, no?

Great point.  I can't pretend to know all the ins and outs.  In European leagues of these calibre anyways, there is a big difference between playing for one of the elite teams of the country and just playing for an average to lesser team in the league.  Hence Cornelius with Malmo.

[Bigandy]

17 hours ago, Obinna said:

Good point. Canada is part of NATO (which is at War with Russia for all intents and purposes). Jamaica is not part of NATO, so that's a potential difference. 

Still, are we that entrentched in the conflict that our national team players cannot play in that division (RPL)? 

Netherlands are a NATO member and as a Western European country who I assume are more involved than we are, though I could be mistaken. Quincy Promes still plays for them, although his calls to the Dutch NT dried up in 2021. Not sure how much of that is just football though. Netherlands are a damn good team. 

Another example - Christopher Martins. Very much part of the Luxenbourg setup and playing for Spartak Moscow. Luxenbourg are a NATO member.

All of that said, maybe there'd be a combination of travel and geopolitics that would keep Amir off the Canadian radar, but am not convinced of that theory at the moment. On paper he should be considered and we need depth so hopefully playing in the RPL isn't a strike against him. It's a good level for a team like Canada. 

Promes is not really a good example to use. He's been indefinitely dropped by the national team because of all the criminal charges against him (stabbing and drugs). He was called up as a youngster when he was in russia years ago but his national team career took off after he joined ajax. There was a small overlapping period after he left ajax and returned to russia where he still was getting some looks from loyalty. Plus all of his call ups were prior to the ukraine conflict so its not really an example of apples to apples.  



 

[finchster]

15 hours ago, Footyeh said:

Would be very ignorant.  The quality of the teams in that league is top

No, I watched the Russian league for like 8 years in person when I worked in Moscow. The Moscow teams and the Zenit are/were top teams, every other team is just not that good. 

Edited August 10, 2023 by finchster

[Obinna]

1 hour ago, Corazon said:

Great point.  I can't pretend to know all the ins and outs.  In European leagues of these calibre anyways, there is a big difference between playing for one of the elite teams of the country and just playing for an average to lesser team in the league.  Hence Cornelius with Malmo.

Not an expert on the RPL or the ins and outs either on league rankings, so someone can correct me if I am wrong, but I am pretty sure that's how the UEFA league rankings work.

The clubs representing the leagues in Europe are responsible for the ranking, so it's pretty flawed. Case in point is the Eredivisie overtaking Ligue 1 recently for the 5th spot. Despite how PSV, Ajax and Feyenoord have done in Europe, we know France is clearly the stronger league top-to-bottom. I believe the same to be true for Russia versus Sweden or the other leagues ahead of Russia you mentioned. The co-efficent is based on the last 5 years and they got a big fat 0 last season, knocking them down 7 spots.

1 hour ago, InglewoodJack said:

I can't say that I'm an expert on RSL, but even if he's a starter for Sochi, where would that realistically place him in the depth chart, assuming that RSL is still a top 10 league, which I don't believe it is, but if that's the case? Would he slot ahead of even Liam Fraser now that Fraser is in Dallas? I think I trust MLS over Russia now unless it's one of the former champions league teams in Moscow or St. Pete. Rhetorical question because I think we all know where Fraser slots, but now that he's at a good club, maybe his minutes are justified?

I can only guess obviously, because I am also not an expert on Russia nor have I seen Amir play, but if he completes the season as a starter that should be viewed in a similar way to how we viewed Loturi's last season with Ross County, at minimum. The SPL is ranked 9th, but like I said to Corazon it's on the strength of Celtic and Rangers and doesn't consider the rest of the league. Compared to Scotland I don't believe the RPL has the same kind of drop off after the big teams, plus Russia has 4 or 5 big teams, not just 2. In that way it's probably more akin to Belgium or Turkey, but that's before the exodus.

I can't say for sure how much the exodus has impacted the division but I see there are still some foreigners over there, just from browsing the rosters of the big teams. Let's also keep in mind Russia is a country of +140M people, by far the most populous in Europe, so the domestic player pool is likely large enough to somewhat sustain the quality of the league, at least in my view (again though, not an expert).

I tend to agree with @Footyeh and suspect the league is stronger than you think. I also have a feeling it is our tendency to overestimate how much the war has impacted the quality of the league, but that's just a feeling from browsing the rosters and considering my assumption they have a rather large player base of "decent" domestic players.

[Obinna]

33 minutes ago, finchster said:

No, I watched the Russian league for like 8 years in person when I worked in Moscow. The Moscow teams and the Zenit are/were top teams, every other team is just not that good. 

Maybe more similar to SPL than I thought then. Although there's more of a big 4/5 than big 2. 

Zenit, CSKA, Spartak, Lokomotiv and Dynamo. I know Rubin Kazan and Krasnodar had their runs in Europe as well.

I think if we are being equally generous to Scotland we should mention Hearts and Aberdeen, but even then I don't feel either has been as relevant as Rubin Kazan or Krasnodar in recent memory, let alone the likes of Dynamo or Lokomotiv.

Am I overestimating Russia here, you think?

[finchster]

1 hour ago, Obinna said:

Maybe more similar to SPL than I thought then. Although there's more of a big 4/5 than big 2. 

Zenit, CSKA, Spartak, Lokomotiv and Dynamo. I know Rubin Kazan and Krasnodar had their runs in Europe as well.

I think if we are being equally generous to Scotland we should mention Hearts and Aberdeen, but even then I don't feel either has been as relevant as Rubin Kazan or Krasnodar in recent memory, let alone the likes of Dynamo or Lokomotiv.

Am I overestimating Russia here, you think?

Russian football is not a business- teams are funded by billionaires, local governments, and private and state-owned companies. Russian teams are money pits and only go so far as state or sugar daddy funding will take them. I used to pay $5-20 for Spartak tickets for RPL games in pretty decent seats. Maybe $100-$200 if there was a top-tier team in the Champions League. 80-90% of their revenue comes from their sponsors.

The top three teams are Zenit, CSKA, and Spartak. Zenit is Sponsored by Gazprom, CSKA by Rosneft, and Spartak by LUK Oil. These are/were the top-three largest companies in Russia. Russian Railways, which sponsors Lokomotiv, is the 5th largest company in Russia. So these teams are generally in the top-4 of Russian football, with Lokomotiv firmly the 4th place team. Russian railways' revenue is one-third of the oil giants, so it's easy to understand why they are in 4th place.

The problem with the other teams is that funding can be unpredictable and short-lived. For example, Rubin Kazan is sponsored by TATNEFT, an oil company from Tatarstan. Tatars are a Turkic-speaking Muslim group located in European Russia, and they had some vanity sports projects in the 2000s-2010s designed to bring awareness to the region. The government and TATNEFT decided to fund sports, and they won the RPL in 2008 and 2009. Once these projects were finished, funding was reduced, and the team became average again. TATNEFT only has one-seventh of the revenue of the oil giants, so they couldn't continue their funding for long. 

 

I will never forget my first game in Russian football- I watched Salut Belgorod play Dynamo Moscow in Belgorod in the Russian Cup. Salut was a first-league team and upset Dynamo Moscow. The Dynamo fans tried to tear up seats and were pissed. However, Salut Belgorod disbanded a few weeks later because their sponsor didn't have money and walked away. 

 

It is weird- government officials say they need a good team, throw money at it for a while, and then stop. So it isn't like quality is being built in the league, just random spikes due to an injection of cash. Samuel Eto'o played for a team in Dagestan for a short time now that team is in the fourth tier of Russian football. Players from the top three teams get sold to some of the best teams in Europe, and our Richie Ennin is playing in Hungary after starting in the RPL. I think that is a fair assessment of Russian football.

 

BACK TO THE TOPIC OF Amir Batyrev

We should watch him, it is like a player starting in league one in the UK IMO

Edited August 10, 2023 by finchster

[Obinna]

7 minutes ago, finchster said:

Russian football is not a business- teams are funded by billionaires, local governments, and private and state-owned companies. Russian teams are money pits and only go so far as state or sugar daddy funding will take them. I used to pay $5-20 for Spartak tickets for RPL games in pretty decent seats. Maybe $100-$200 if there was a top-tier team in the Champions League. 80-90% of their revenue comes from their sponsors.

The top three teams are Zenit, CSKA, and Spartak. Zenit is Sponsored by Gazprom, CSKA by Rosneft, and Spartak by LUK Oil. These are/were the top-three largest companies in Russia. Russian Railways, which sponsors Lokomotiv, is the 5th largest company in Russia. So these teams are generally in the top-4 of Russian football, with Lokomotiv firmly the 4th place team. Russian railways' revenue is one-third of the oil giants, so it's easy to understand why they are in 4th place.

The problem with the other teams is that funding can be unpredictable and short-lived. For example, Rubin Kazan is sponsored by TATNEFT, an oil company from Tatarstan. Tatars are a Turkic-speaking Muslim group located in European Russia, and they had some vanity sports projects in the 2000s-2010s designed to bring awareness to the region. The government and TATNEFT decided to fund sports, and they won the RPL in 2008 and 2009. Once these projects were finished, funding was reduced, and the team became average again. TATNEFT only has one-seventh of the revenue of the oil giants, so they couldn't continue their funding for long. 

 

I will never forget my first game in Russian football- I watched Salut Belgorod play Dynamo Moscow in Belgorod in the Russian Cup. Salut was a first-league team and upset Dynamo Moscow. The Dynamo fans tried to tear up seats and were pissed. However, Salut Belgorod disbanded a few weeks later because their sponsor didn't have money and walked away. 

 

It is weird- government officials say they need a good team, throw money at it for a while, and then stop. So it isn't like quality is being built in the league, just random spikes due to an injection of cash. Samuel Eto'o played for a team in Dagestan for a short time now that team is in the fourth tier of Russian football. Players from the top three teams get sold to some of the best teams in Europe, and our Richie Ennin is playing in Hungary after starting in the RPL. I think that is a fair assessment of Russian football.

 

BACK TO THE TOPIC OF Amir Batyrev

We should watch him, it is like a player starting in league one in the UK IMO

Enjoyed that read...thanks!👍

[Footyeh]

2 hours ago, finchster said:

No, I watched the Russian league for like 8 years in person when I worked in Moscow. The Moscow teams and the Zenit are/were top teams, every other team is just not that good. 

That alone is 5 teams... then you add Krasnador with huge budgets and top talents, Rostov that often ends up in Europe...

I'm not saying it's an absolute top league, but it's far better and more competitive than having players in SPL, Norway, Swiss etc.

[VinceA]

People dismissing the RPL as a league that isn't good enough to call Canadians from are way off the mark and are overrating our team by a lot.

[InglewoodJack]

24 minutes ago, VinceA said:

People dismissing the RPL as a league that isn't good enough to call Canadians from are way off the mark and are overrating our team by a lot.

People rating a single player for a handful of apps on a bottom of table team in a league in decline that was a top league in europe a few years back are probably overrating the player too.

[kacbru]

6 hours ago, InglewoodJack said:

We have to keep in mind that we had to cancel a friendly against Iran because it was deemed insensitive to the Ukrainian community.

63 Canadians were killed on that flight.  It was insensitive to the Canadian community.

[Corazon]

I know the the Russian Premier League isn't the same quality as it once was and then add in the politics and it's easy to understand that he's not getting called.  However, I did want to make note that it appears he has almost solidified himself a starting role at Center Mid.  He's started 4 of the last 5 games for FC Sochi & 7 of the 12 games he's played in this season.  He has been utilized as an attacking midfield in some games but it looks like he has solidified his central midfield spot alongside Ecuadorian legend Christian Noboa.  Now Christian Noboa is at the tail end of his career at 38 years old.  Noboa has spent most of his 16 professional European seasons in Russia with giants such as Rubin Kazan, Dynamo Moscow & Zenit St Petersburg.  It's not a bad midfielder to learn from and play alongside.  He had 83 caps for Ecuador over a 12 year span ending two years ago.

I'm not advocating for him to be called in over any other midfielders we called but I do believe he should in conversation for our extended roster along with other European based midfielders, Loturi, Froese, Sigur, Colyn, Nelson etc.  It should also be noted that his club FC Sochi are currently dead last in the division, so maybe he is getting a chance to start now after a poor start to the season.  Also, again, I fully understand that playing in Russia likely hinders his chances of a call but he's worth continuing to monitor, especially if he can continue to start in the Russian top division.

Edited October 6, 2023 by Corazon

[Bigandy]

7 minutes ago, Corazon said:

I know the the Russian Premier League isn't the same quality as it once was and then add in the politics and it's easy to understand that he's not getting called.  However, I did want to make note that it appears he has almost solidified himself a starting role at Center Mid.  He's started 4 of the last 5 games for FC Sochi & 7 of the 12 games he's played in this season.  He has been utilized as an attacking midfield in some games but it looks like he has solidified his central midfield spot alongside Ecuadorian legend Christian Noboa.  Now Christian Noboa is at the tail end of his career at 38 years old.  Noboa has spent most of his 16 professional European seasons in Russia with giants such as Rubin Kazan, Dynamo Moscow & Zenit St Petersburg.  It's not a bad midfielder to learn from and play alongside.  He had 83 caps for Ecuador over a 12 year span ending two years ago.

I'm not advocating for him to be called in over any other midfielders we called but I do believe he should in conversation for our extended roster along with other European based midfielders, Loturi, Froese, Sigur, Colyn, Nelson etc.  It should also be noted that his club FC Sochi are currently dead last in the division, so maybe he is getting a chance to start now after a poor start to the season.  Also, again, I fully understand that playing in Russia likely hinders his chances of a call but he's worth continuing to monitor, especially if he can continue to start in the Russian top division.

Agreed. He could compete with loturi, paton, froese, MAK, Fraser for our final CM spot. If he pulls a cornelius and moves to a swedish type league and takes off, he would be right there for a spot. I think his bigger challenge will be that saliba, zouhir, rea could all take the next step by the time he moves up a level.  

[Corazon]

10 minutes ago, Bigandy said:

Agreed. He could compete with loturi, paton, froese, MAK, Fraser for our final CM spot. If he pulls a cornelius and moves to a swedish type league and takes off, he would be right there for a spot. I think his bigger challenge will be that saliba, zouhir, rea could all take the next step by the time he moves up a level.  

100%, when you really add in the depth we have with MLS nowadays, it makes it that much harder for these European based Canadians playing for top divisions in some of the smaller leagues.  In an ideal world, I'd love to the games/competitions for the best team we can put together.  But I would love to see both domestic and European based camps as well to extend our player pool.  Completely unrealistic expectation but I dream.

If we hold a Camp Poutine, I hope we include him as the Russian League takes a break for Christmas and returns back in March.  Include Batyrev in the Camp Poutine along with other Northern European Leagues on winter break with players such as Nelson, Cornelius, Bustos, Thompson, Godinho, Zator, etc.  We can easily put a respectable roster out there with MLS & a couple CPL players.  Now that I think about it, we can put out a respectable roster with just MLS players these days (respectable in comparison to previous Camp Poutines).

Edited October 6, 2023 by Corazon

[Bigandy]

24 minutes ago, Corazon said:

100%, when you really add in the depth we have with MLS nowadays, it makes it that much harder for these European based Canadians playing for top divisions in some of the smaller leagues.  In an ideal world, I'd love to the games/competitions for the best team we can put together.  But I would love to see both domestic and European based camps as well to extend our player pool.  Completely unrealistic expectation but I dream.

If we hold a Camp Poutine, I hope we include him as the Russian League takes a break for Christmas and returns back in March.  Include Batyrev in the Camp Poutine along with other Northern European Leagues on winter break with players such as Nelson, Cornelius, Bustos, Thompson, Godinho, Zator, etc.  We can easily put a respectable roster out there with MLS & a couple CPL players.  Now that I think about it, we can put out a respectable roster with just MLS players these days (respectable in comparison to previous Camp Poutines).

23 man B roster based on the current A squad (japan)
Sirios panetemis mcgill
Kenendy, zator, LMN, ZMG, waterman edwards raposo ZBG, buchanan (wingback)
Saliba, loturi, batryev, MAK, ali
Shaf, nelson, JRR, Cav, corbeanu ugbo

C- team 
breza, gavram, desjardins? 
Yao, Nimick, petrasso, JMR, franklin, dunn, heibert, stefanovic
Thompson, froese, zouhir, rea, young, priso, fraser
Kerr, Bair, vilsaint, colyn, akinola

D - Team
Thomas, biello, Carducci
Sturing, James, guti, JKL, godhino, antonoglou, didic, pearlman
 okello, smith, dias, tahid, habibullah
Mbongue, Cambridge, pepple, ntignee Michel, Diallo, ennin 

Interesting exercise. We can reasonably create a C team but after that the quality drops hard. 

Duals missing:
Koleosho
jebbison
sali
van eerdan 
sigur
abzi 
farsi
 

[InglewoodJack]

Looks like they’re going to start reintegrating Russia into international tournaments too. I think they’re trying to get their U17s back in action and then go from there. Would love to bring him over to MLS and start bringing him closer to our team, but I think with politics, it might be tough to beat out Russia if they’re interested. 

[Obinna]

13 minutes ago, InglewoodJack said:

Looks like they’re going to start reintegrating Russia into international tournaments too. I think they’re trying to get their U17s back in action and then go from there. Would love to bring him over to MLS and start bringing him closer to our team, but I think with politics, it might be tough to beat out Russia if they’re interested. 

I don't follow the RPL or the Russian NT but my assumption is they are deeper at all positions than we are (despite lacking the top end talent we have in Davies, David, maybe arguably Eustaquio). Therefore, we may be able to beat them to the punch on this guy, assuming he even generates interest from the Russian NT. 

Edited October 6, 2023 by Obinna

[Corazon]

1 hour ago, Obinna said:

I don't follow the RPL or the Russian NT but my assumption is they are deeper at all positions than we are (despite lacking the top end talent we have in Davies, David, maybe arguably Eustaquio). Therefore, we may be able to beat them to the punch on this guy, assuming he even generates interest from the Russian NT. 

I think your pretty spot on with that analysis.  We would have better top end talent but they would likely have greater depth at most positions and at a decent level as well.