Scouting

Just a quick question:

When asking your scout to follow someone, do they have to watch them live in order to report on them? I ask because I've asked my scout to follow someone who is currently injured, and am not expecting any reports until they return to fitness.

Surely if this happened in real life the scout would be able to watch games that have already taken place in order to get a quicker response

Maybe this is something that could be implemented for FM 2011...

No I think for what happens i real life the current system is pretty close, as watching a game in person will tell you more than watching a recording or live TV feed. Remember a lot of what a player is happens when he is off the ball, so therefore it is rare that a Tv viewing or video recording would give you the full picture. Remember also the cost, all you have to pay of a scout is wages plus expenses, whereas for recordings (to do it right) you would have to pay for at least six camera operators, their equipment, a good editiong suite if you are looking at a teams star young CF then you don't want lots of footage of the CB), some outside broadcasting HQ (especially for smaller grounds) and the scout. This will come with the added disadvantage that the scout will be less likely to pick up that the CB is as good (jus not as well known) as he has been edited out.

What I'm curious about is how a scout assigned to watch three different players on three different teams decides which one to watch if they all play on the same Saturday.

What I'm curious about is how a scout assigned to watch three different players on three different teams decides which one to watch if they all play on the same Saturday.

That's probably where the game fails the realism test. I've often given my scout doing S. America a job of scouting a European based player, and he will recommend 7 Brazilians on Saturday, and give me a report on the European revealing full stats on the Sunday. I'm guessing the game does all three.