Scouting Players for Free Transfers

I'm playing as Paris FC in the French National League (3rd tier). My transfer budget is 0 so clearly I have to rely on frees. My question is, other than clicking people's names and scouting them manually, is there any way to send my scout out to look for free transfer players?

Right now when I go to Free Transfers in the Transfer Centre, I find 1547 players, and I have information on 4 of them. It's a bit overwhelming.

Thanks for any help!

Can you not set up your scouts to look for specific values of players? I always just set mines to regions without too much thought about what kinds of players they are looking for but im sure you can narrow their search a bit, you could also try scouting specific nations which should give you quicker reports, or you can multi select players in the player search and scout them all with a couple of clicks, just make sure not to overload your shortlist or it could slow your game down a bit.

I'm in the same situation. It's hard work!!

I try to use the information that's available easily and never masked.

Search "unattached".

ie. if I'm looking for a left-back - then I'll automatically discard anyone who is over six-feet tall. Similarly with weight. Heavy guys can be removed. Obviously I'll want him to be left-footed too.

This will hopefully cut down your list by 50%.

Then you can remove anyone too old/young.

Start sorting the stats ie. defensive and see if there's anyone good.

Then use "trials" to get players assessed at your club.

I'll take on 20 left-backs in a big trial group. Hopefully just one of them will be signable, according to my assistants star-rating report.

milner - when I scout regions, my scout comes back with no one, and when I scout nations, he comes back every day with the same guy, it's strange.

swarfega - those seem to be good ideas, gonna have to give them a try

thanks for the responses guys!