Player search, scouting, looking at AI squads

Does anyone opt to not using the player search at all - and only buys players by scouting? I am interested in how many people go down this realistic route and how many allow themselves to use the player search.

Those who post in the LLM forum only use scouting.

Technically speaking, the players that appear using the search engine depends on your club's scouting knowledge. All you are really doing is searching through the players that have been discovered by your club. Who is to say that clubs don't have extensive databases of players they can search through? So it's not entirely unrealistic.

In any case, I do a bit of everything. Sometimes my scouts may not find a player I'm looking for, so I use the filters in the search engine to help me. When looking for youth, I often search AI teams for their most promising youngsters.

I get 95% of my players via scouts. However, if a player performs well against me, I'll have my scouts watch him. I use the player search function every now and then.

The player search screen is generated according to your club's scouting knowledge, so there shouldn't really be any players on there who realistically the club would be unaware of. I use this screen to identify targets to send my scouts to go and report on, then sign them based on the reports.

Based on this article, I think this is a fairly realistic approach and possibly more realistic than just assigning scouts and hoping for the best that they return with suitable players.

I particularly like this bit:

I also used a computer database of 70,000 footballers, which could immediately call up all their statistics for the last four years.

It just goes to show that the information we have in FM is pretty close to real life.

There's a couple of other rules I set myself: I always scout a player before signing them, if I can't get a scout or coach report then I can't sign him. I also never look through AI squads, if a player does not appear on my player search screen then they do not exist to me.

Scouting only for me.

Sometimes I see a player who plays well against me or stands out for some reason (an award mainly) and I'll send a scout to have a look at them.

The player search screen is generated according to your club's scouting knowledge, so there shouldn't really be any players on there who realistically the club would be unaware of. I use this screen to identify targets to send my scouts to go and report on, then sign them based on the reports.

Based on this article, I think this is a fairly realistic approach and possibly more realistic than just assigning scouts and hoping for the best that they return with suitable players.

I particularly like this bit:

It just goes to show that the information we have in FM is pretty close to real life.

There's a couple of other rules I set myself: I always scout a player before signing them, if I can't get a scout or coach report then I can't sign him. I also never look through AI squads, if a player does not appear on my player search screen then they do not exist to me.

Cheers for that dafuge - seems to me that I had the player search misunderstood. Why dont you search through AI squads though?

Cheers for that dafuge - seems to me that I had the player search misunderstood. Why dont you search through AI squads though?

Since I only sign the players who are accessible via my scouts, I can get all the players I need using the player search screen. I prefer to 'discover' new players by expanding my scouting knowledge rather than looking at squads.

For example, as a lower league club I could look at the Levski Sofia squad and find information on players that I would deem 'out of bounds', since my club and I have no knowledge of Bulgaria. However, if I sign a Bulgarian coach, his knowledge will bring a few (not all) Bulgarian players to my player search screen. I have no problem with looking at these players (even though I cannot scout them), but will only sign them if I can get them in on trial first.