How to get newgens before the big club does?

Hi guys!

I was wondering how I can get the newgens before the big club gets them? I'm in season 2 now, and I can see that Real already bought some insane Brazilian newgen without my scouts have managed to find him. So my question is, how do you use your scouts when it comes to finding the newgens and what do you search for in player search etc.?

I simply employ as many scouts as I'm allowed and have them roam all available regions. That way I don't have to restart their assignments all the time and maintain very wide scouting knowledge. I don't really expect to get first to every single talent out there though, but I seem to do better than the AI teams.

I have a scout only scouting the brazilian under-18 league. He comes up with 3-4 reports per week.

i go through all the bigger teams in the regions (brazil for example) and sort their squads by age, i tend to get quite a few that way but it takes time

Scouting is the obvious route to follow I think. One problem that you might enounter though is if your a club in the uk or anywhere that has strict work permit rules. If you try to sign an uncapped south american player for example and you dont have a feeder club in place that you can send the player to until he meets the criteria then you'll probably fail to get a work permit.

As well as using scouting and relying on them to pick someone up (as not only may they miss people but scouting resources may be minimal), look hard yourself. When player searching go far down. Today was just starting off (in the job, not the save) at Inter and was going to stop at £2M, then decided to go further (initially to 1M, then decided 1.5M would do having spent half the day) which enabled me to catch sight of a most amazing young forward playing in Cyprus who I'd have missed otherwise. I also (when I'm somewhere where I can afford to) do a follow up search for players up to 18yr old only to try and catch a few excellent young stars, though as they often still come fairly inflated so a lot of the time I need to focus all resources on players for the here and now.

One way if it hasn't already been said is to get the list of the dates when the newgens are generated in each country and set a reminder in the your notes set to remind you every year to of when certain countries newgen's have come through then go through some youth teams from that country. That could be time consuming though.

i go through all the bigger teams in the regions (brazil for example) and sort their squads by age, i tend to get quite a few that way but it takes time

This.

At the start of every season, one of my favourite aspects of the game.

One way if it hasn't already been said is to get the list of the dates when the newgens are generated in each country and set a reminder in the your notes set to remind you every year to of when certain countries newgen's have come through then go through some youth teams from that country. That could be time consuming though.

You got a link to where I can find the dates in FM11? :-)

That would be awesome!

How do you know if they're a newgen or not? Is there a way of finding out?

Newgens have that FaceGen face on their profile, unless you've turned them off.

How do you know if they're a newgen or not? Is there a way of finding out?

Look in the players history and see when the first season he came into the game was. That's what i do anyway.

Every season I sign as many scouts as I can. Until the board cancels them. I have a lot of scouts after about 3 or 4 seasons.

I then set them to roam around looking for talent. I then read their reports and only sign players that have a 4.5 or 5 star rating.

I signed a little Italian called Biodini at the tender age of 16 for €22m. And it was the best buy I've ever made. He's a legend.

I'm not a fan of how the scouting works in the game, for several reasons. But you do find some nice little players from time to time.

Every season I sign as many scouts as I can. Until the board cancels them. I have a lot of scouts after about 3 or 4 seasons.

I then set them to roam around looking for talent. I then read their reports and only sign players that have a 4.5 or 5 star rating.

I signed a little Italian called Biodini at the tender age of 16 for €22m. And it was the best buy I've ever made. He's a legend.

I'm not a fan of how the scouting works in the game, for several reasons. But you do find some nice little players from time to time.

If you only sign players with 4.5 or 5 stars you won't be signing anyone once you're good enough

If you only sign players with 4.5 or 5 stars you won't be signing anyone once you're good enough

LOL - what's the point in buying players that are not better than what you already have. If I need a backup player for left back, I'll sign a left back equal to or better than what I already have, I won't buy a player that is only 3 or 4 stars. If I can't find one I don't bother.

That's the plan. I don't buy mediocre players. If I have a 4.5 star striker and I have the opportunity to sign a 5 star rated striker I'll buy him and oust the 4.5 star rated striker (if I don't play him much) I then put on a "percentage of next sale" and in about 5 seasons Real or Chelsea sign him for about €60m so I get the €18m I sold him for + another €30m.

Nice cash injection for later on down the road.

LOL - what's the point in buying players that are not better than what you already have. If I need a backup player for left back, I'll sign a left back equal to or better than what I already have, I won't buy a player that is only 3 or 4 stars. If I can't find one I don't bother.

That's the plan. I don't buy mediocre players. If I have a 4.5 star striker and I have the opportunity to sign a 5 star rated striker I'll buy him and oust the 4.5 star rated striker (if I don't play him much) I then put on a "percentage of next sale" and in about 5 seasons Real or Chelsea sign him for about €60m so I get the €18m I sold him for + another €30m.

Nice cash injection for later on down the road.

If your squad is good enough you still won't be signing anyone if you only sign 4.5 or 5 star players.

Eh I do - and new players come along each season or mature into better players.

I'll probably go through a stint of not signing players for a few seasons, that happens.

My team squad is no bigger than 17 players. I'll bring in the youth players to fill up the squad if I have to. But I don't buy players unless they have 4.5 or 5 star rating.

Eh I do - and new players come along each season or mature into better players.

I'll probably go through a stint of not signing players for a few seasons, that happens.

My team squad is no bigger than 17 players. I'll bring in the youth players to fill up the squad if I have to. But I don't buy players unless they have 4.5 or 5 star rating.

What he means is once you have a world class squad you won't get any scouted players at 4.5* or 5* as this would mean they would be significantly better than your world class players.

At that stage even the best players in the game will be rated at 3-4* due to the strength of your current squad.

I guess you don't understand what I mean. The reason you won't be signing any 4.5 or 5 star players is because those ratings are measured primarily against the quality of players currently in your squad. Once your first team is full of world class players you won't be able to find ones that are much better. At that time 4 star or even only 3.5 stars is the best you will be able to find.

Edit: I see cougar already explained it

No - I already know that. But there's always room for improvement.

If my player is a 5 star rating when I sign him, that just means he's better than my current player.

So I could sign a 5 star player that has a "CA" of 150 and "PA" of 175 (to put it in simple terms)

Then I find another player that is 5 stars, that just means he's better than 150 & 175.

So I could find another player that is better than that again.

And players get old, or injured or sold off. Which I'll do quite often. I'll list my players at the end of the season by Assistant Report and cull the weakest ranked players and the players that didn't play that often (obviously taking into account if they were injured for half the season). But if I have a 3 star rated player that played 5 games last season I don't want him in my team.