Scouting is a bit lame...

Wouldn't it make scouting more useful if they were able to uncover 'hidden' players that you don't see in squad lists from teams in leagues where you don't have full detail? I seem to remember this happening on CM 01/02.

I sometimes spend hours trawling through teams in foreign leagues and can spot the same players they do, but if scouts could spot players that are not visible to a manager then this would give them a little more purpose. And it's not as if their scout reports are always THAT useful as you can tell at a glance whether a player is worth signing.

Also, it'd be useful if you ask the scout to not report on any player below a certain rating. For instance, it's very frustrating when they highly recommend players to you in messages that are only 3.5 stars and never draw your attention to better players in their scout reports. I sometimes forget to check their reports and miss out on better players because they're not highlighting them.

Try enabling hidden attributes when you start a new game. Then you can only see some of a players stats.

I sometimes spend hours trawling through teams in foreign leagues

Scouting has a bit more purpose for those of us without the patience to do this.

Haha I think to myself 'I'll have a look for 5 minutes'. Before I know it I've spent 4 hours searching almost every league and I've wet myself without even knowing...

Also, it'd be useful if you ask the scout to not report on any player below a certain rating. For instance, it's very frustrating when they highly recommend players to you in messages that are only 3.5 stars and never draw your attention to better players in their scout reports. I sometimes forget to check their reports and miss out on better players because they're not highlighting them.

You can already kind of do this on their assignments, on FM12 there's filters for minimum ability or potential, it's a very good addition actually to make sure they don't come back reporting with useless players.

Haha I think to myself 'I'll have a look for 5 minutes'. Before I know it I've spent 4 hours searching almost every league and I've wet myself without even knowing...

Wow thats dedication. I just send a scout to each region and also a competetion within that region. That in itself wields enough results to avoid the player search feature. I keep one scout for the next opp and my best to scout real transfer targets thoroughly for 5 or 6 matches. I don't need to be a scout myself aswell. Why have a dog and bark yourself?

You can already kind of do this on their assignments, on FM12 there's filters for minimum ability or potential, it's a very good addition actually to make sure they don't come back reporting with useless players.

Ahh, never noticed that before. Cheers pal.

Wow thats dedication. I just send a scout to each region and also a competetion within that region. That in itself wields enough results to avoid the player search feature. I keep one scout for the next opp and my best to scout real transfer targets thoroughly for 5 or 6 matches. I don't need to be a scout myself aswell. Why have a dog and bark yourself?

I've come across players in teams which my scout hasn't looked at and have been easily of first team potential. Sometimes they do miss players and I hate the thought of missing out on the best young players available.

I think in this day and age scouts discovering players within squads would be a bit weird, what with wikipedia, the internet etc having detailed squad lists everywhere

I think in this day and age scouts discovering players within squads would be a bit weird, what with wikipedia, the internet etc having detailed squad lists everywhere

or even FM. But there'll always be a player somewhere that a manager overlooks or hasn't heard about that a scout will spot.