Scouting tips for lower league

Hi mates.

Please all experianced players give me tips how to find cheap or free agents,but good players for lower league sides without using any editors or shortlists .

I like to use players search

Assistant advice > Get team report (See who your assistant recommends to replace a weak player in your squad. These tend to be £0 players when you're lower league)

At the end of a season, keep an eye on clubs in divisions above you. They will release their youth players, which you can then approach.

Make full use of "trials".

send out scouts to find players in your country/region/league.. and then simply just browse other clubs to find unhappy/not wanted players..

Get a parent club and loan players from them

You have a scout yes?

At the end of a season, keep an eye on clubs in divisions above you. They will release their youth players, which you can then approach.

Make full use of "trials".

This was going to be my advice.

At the end of the season the bigger clubs tend to release youngsters who are great in the lower leagues. If you plan ahead and scout the players who's contracts are expiring (using the player search for players under 21 based in England with expiring contracts) you can get them in on trial once they are released.

Yeah I'm playing with Grenoble Foot. Now is mid season so i just made filter with contract expiring with 6 months and added top Division from England,Spain,France,Holland and other pro countries ? Selected all players and send my scout to give me reports about them

Yeah I'm playing with Grenoble Foot. Now is mid season so i just made filter with contract expiring with 6 months and added top Division from England,Spain,France,Holland and other pro countries ? Selected all players and send my scout to give me reports about them

Ahhhh. A lot of my advice is not really relevant now. I wouldn't really class Grenoble as "lower league".

More tips then ?

Players nearing the end of their contracts.

Ex-international free transfers (32 years old +).

Maybe ask your board to invest in youth development?

hire lots of scouts and send them to different regions/competitions

browse through national U21/U19 sides and even A sides.. you'll probably find some very talented youths

look at brazilian teams.. they tend to have many talents that are relatively cheap

Ahhhh. A lot of my advice is not really relevant now. I wouldn't really class Grenoble as "lower league".

The same goes for mine, I was thinking more of BSN/S type clubs.

I always find the second league in a big country a tough one for transfers, generally the released youth players aren't good enough so I usually have to take a few risks in the transfer market and splash a bit of cash.

I just use the Player Search, and look for people out of contract. I then scout them to get a report, and/or use trials ... lots and lots and lots of trials

For lower league teams, the free transfers available can be a gold mine.

I even sometimes get offered players from agents, that are pretty darn good too. Often I offer them a trial, and a few days later they fire their agent, so I can negotiate with them directly

I use my Filter in lower leagues, and then up to league below the top level, the only bit that changes is the Player Value section...as follows:

Position: Do one at a time can easily spot key players

Nationality: Depends on League, but in Spain I currently have EU National + South American (2yrs for Nationality) + Russian/Turkey etc (From the EU List)

Based In: This list is all the countries I can Scout (Makes sure I can actually get reports on them)

Contract: Expired, Unattached, Amateur, Expiring 6mths. (Put or between each & before value)

Value: At Most 1/5th of my transfer budget (if it is 0 then put 0 - Some players can actually be bought for 0 and do the job)

I then start by looking for Key attributes, I scout probably 15-20 players at each position (If offers are flying for a player I generally offer a contract if the offers are from similar or higher level clubs) - Then Trials to the best 5 at each position if the best player is not clear, then it is about signing the best 2-3 of them so you have back-ups as well. (In Spain this means making sure your third back-up is U19)

Well, in most cases you won't be able to scout outside the country, so check the national teams for free agents (Wales, both Irelands and Scotland tend to have some) and if you can't scout that player, do what Swarfega said and make them come for a trial, and from there you can make your decision

Hi mates.

Please all experianced players give me tips how to find cheap or free agents,but good players for lower league sides without using any editors or shortlists .

I like to use players search

One of the very first things I do when I take over at any club, is pester the board to increase scouting range and the number of scouts I can have. The more regions and countries you can scout and the more scouts you have with knowledge of different countries, the more players you will find through the standard player search options and scouting assignments. Personally, I try to get scouts of many different nationalities, but usually look for ones who can scout different continents. For example, some Brazilian scouts will have knowledge of Argentina, Uruguay and other South American countries. Some Norwegian scouts have knowledge of Sweden, Finland, Denmark, which makes them ideally suited to regional scouting in Scandinavia.

With a club like Grenoble Foot, after two or three successful board requests to increase scouting range in other countries, you should be able to scout anywhere in the world. In my Telford United save starting in the BSN, I was able to scout worldwide after five successful requests to the board. This meant that by the time I reached League Two, I could scout anywhere in the world.

The other alternative to this, is to manually look through teams yourself, looking for players that suit your requirements, though this is obviously quite time consuming.

As others have said, look for free agents and players released by other clubs, then try to bring them to your club on trial first. This gives your coaches an opportunity to look at them and provide you with reports and feedback, to aid your decisions.