Backroom Reports

IMO these are a waste of time, as all the scouts and players they recommend are rubbish.

Even if Im managing Man Utd, and my coaches and scouts are of elite level, they still recommend below average players and staff

Waste of a tool IMO unless it is worked on in the new version

Strange. I find it pretty useful and often see good additions mentioned as well as other useful advice.

Definitely needs work though as the interface is horrible but the idea itself is a sound one in my opinion.

No, I've found the staff suggestions are pretty good. Certainly better than advertising. Just signed a 19 Physio, the best I got from the ad was 12.

I think it is a good addition, yes sometimes the recommendations are dodgy but at least as a manager you feel that your backroom staff are getting involved and contributing.

I find it pretty useful for pointing our players who are after a new challenge.

I think it is a good addition, yes sometimes the recommendations are dodgy but at least as a manager you feel that your backroom staff are getting involved and contributing.

My backroom staff at FC United have found me all my signings, and I'm looking at the playoffs in my first BSN season because of them. Yes, sometimes they find rubbish players/staff, but then it is up to you to sort the wheat from the chaff.

I'm not sure if you're actually managing Man Utd or just using them as an example, but this seems to me to be another case of a feature being of more use if you're not managing an elite club. My current save is an Unemployed start career which has taken me to Shrewsbury and now Bolton. With Shrewsbury in League 2 and League 1 the recommended players and staff (the latter in particular since I agree that it does recommend a lot of poor players) were more likely to be of use to me than with Bolton in the Championship. The other side to it is that in longer saves it's handy for picking up talented regens who have been released by Premiership clubs who I normally wouldn't notice because I have no way of recognising their names (and don't want to spend hours trawling through profiles in the hope of finding a gem).

Yeah agree with the OP. SI had the correct idea but poor execution. I'm scouting a 16 year old and they say 'hes currenly below the level of Messi' yeah cheers for that wonderfull piece of imformation - yes they do talk about potential ability but all they say is he wont be as good, about a similat level, has the potential to be better - this is just too wider a spectrum and like most interaction in FM it is too narrow minded and robotic. I know that was scout reports but I'll go onto the backroom in a moment.

The only decent thing about the scout reports is when the scouts talk about there weaknesses - e.g. he has poor footballing intelligence, or he is a selfish player etc - these are things that are hard to tell as they are hidden so the scouts are usefull here but I believe our own judgements is far better than the scouts and hence makes the scouts pretty redundant. SI need to make more aspects of players hidden so to make the scouts much more valuable and a bit more realistic.

And onto the fortnightly meetings - they play better agianst 4-4-2, we play better aginst bigger reputation teams, they concede most of their goals between 1-15 minutes, we score most of our between 75-90 minutes, player x should not be taking freekicks, corners, throw ins, hard talikng against player y etc ........ its all just obvious stuff or stuff that we dont need to know - im all for new features/data but make it meaningfull so we can use it to our advantage.

I know the above is different but is similar to what the OP was saying in terms of interaction with the staff. Like the press conferences - right idea but poor execution IMO - Like the press conferences, SI introduce new interaction (which is a step in the right direction) but its so mundane and repetitive (yes press conferencea are in real life) but the process seems to have no meaning or implication in the game and stands for nothing to a certain extent. There needs to be more autonomy from scout reports to coach reports - tell us something that may be like 'gold dust' or something worth knowing about - not something that a 5 year old could work out! And it just insults us that they think we dont know this already.

I find the recommendations often rather funny. I had recently a transfer budget of 64 euros and my backroom team recommended me to bring in two foreign players, worth 1.5 million euros together, so that a couple of homesick new signings could get these compatriots to help them settle in.

Their also seem to misjudge junior players, advising me basically every time I sign a junior that we shouldn't sign this 16-17 year old because he's not good as our 30 year old star players.

I tend to ignore their thoughts on who should be on the TL. I do scout the players they reccommend though and a lot of the training stuff is very useful.

Guys I am referring to the Backroom meetings; ONLY the players they recommend via that screen, and NOT the news screen when they show released players. For higher leagues, showing released players does save time from searching for ages

However, the backroom meetings are quite pointless.

Appreciate your opinions, cheers

I also find them useful sometimes for pointing out potential PPM training.

I also find them useful sometimes for pointing out potential PPM training.

Yes I'll second this but only becasue I cannot do it manually becasue it was not available.

I also find them useful for praising/criticising players.

I also find them useful sometimes for pointing out potential PPM training.

If you look at the original post, he doesn't criticise that. He's criticising the players and staff they recommend. I'd have to agree with him. The players and staff they recommend tend to be much lower quality than my own.

I've used their player recommendations as Chelmsford City, but not signed too many. Another good place to look is the transfer rumours screen for the league you're in. Great for finding unknown players on frees you'd never otherwise find.

If you look at the original post, he doesn't criticise that. He's criticising the players and staff they recommend. I'd have to agree with him. The players and staff they recommend tend to be much lower quality than my own.

He actually said 'IMO these are a waste of time' and although the scout reports may not be much use I think the other things I've mentioned are.

Maybe it was just a misleading thread title.

He actually said 'IMO these are a waste of time' and although the scout reports may not be much use I think the other things I've mentioned are.

Maybe it was just a misleading thread title.

I think the Backroom Reports are brilliant. They just need more work.

I quite like them, they have found me players from completely random leagues I normally don't have scouted. Picked up a quality Slovenian winger/striker because of this.

They do a decent job of recommending player interactions, a part of the game I'm too lazy to micromanage.

Although they do occasionally throw in a head scratcher, like how a guy with the highest freekick taking on my team shouldn't be a free kick taker.

I find it pretty useful for pointing our players who are after a new challenge.

+1, then it's time to decide if I'll offer that player a lucrative contract or if I'll sell them for a hefty fee (30million+ pounds) in the next transfer window.

I use staff search for recruiting new staff, and I use logic for setting my set-piece takers, but I find the backroom staff really useful for

1. finding quality regens in obscure locations - I have a lot of scouts from different parts of the world, and so I get some good recommendations

2. Finding the right level of praise - a good man management staff member is really useful for letting you know how much to praise a player, and when to do it.

3. Monitoring player happiness: I don't have to trawl through profile screens seeing who wants a new challenge, or a new contract, or isn't getting along - I can nip these things in the bud before the player becomes unhappy.

They also occasionally suggest a good PPM for me to get my players learning, so all in all it's not a bad effort for a first try - I'm sure it'll improve, interface- and other-wise, in FM2011.