Rating drops on signing player???

[bolulu]

So it's mid-season & I'm busy trying to sign players for the new season.
I scout a midfielder who rates four stars, better than any other midfielder in the squad, looks good; so I go for him. He signs for me some days later but when I re-check his reports following signing he is suddenly 2.5 stars & 2nd rated midfilder in squad.
What's going on? How can one improve the squad if this sort of crap goes on?
Is it my scout?
Anyone else noticed this?

[SWaRFeGa]

Your scout and assistant manager may have differing opinions.
I always have my assistant run the rule over a player before I finalise the deal. He's the one you listen to on the squad screen.
You can get a nasty surprise if one of your scouts has recommended a Lionel Messi and you end up with a Lionel Blair.

[Howie]

Scout scouted him, and assistant rates him when he's in your squad so 2 different opinion?

[Graham FM]

are you sure his potential was 4 stars and his ability was only 2.5.. it can be misleading because when you look at the player in the bottom right will show his star rating by your scout and this is his potential and not his current ability

[steve-0271]

ive seen this happen a few times also, even when ive had 2 or 3 scouts with 20/20 attributes for judging players but its possible i havent had my assistant manager check him. shall keep that in mind i guess. though i dont tend to have an assistant manager with as high attributes for judging players as compared to my scouts. my assistant manager usually has high tactical knowledge/coaching/discipline/motivation.

[vlobben]

Star ratings in the squad screen (assistant reports) are relative to your current squad, while star rating scouts report are relative to your squad the moment the player in question was scouted. Maybe that explains the drop in rating?

[SSGTroyer]

As has been mentioned...differring opinions between scout and assman, user error by looking at "recommendation" (which often displays potential), timing of the report. But the biggest cause of this is laziness. Not digging into the playercard itself to see what one's staff's guesses about the actual attributes are, and comparing them to the same staff member's guess of the player one hopes to replace.

[bolulu]

Viobben: the player was scouted & signed (joined the club) within 2/3 days of each other, so that's not the reason. Good thought though!
Sorry SSG but this is something I do in my spare time & the sort of "digging" detail you're talking about would make the game too long-winded & complicated for me.
Whatever has been suggested here, I still maintain that a 4 star rating on a scouting report one day shouldn't change to 2.5 when the bloke joins me three days later.

[dafuge]

Whatever has been suggested here, I still maintain that a 4 star rating on a scouting report one day shouldn't change to 2.5 when the bloke joins me three days later.

The ratings are subjective, so the likelihood is that your scout rated the player higher than your assistant did. On his coach report, have you tried looking at the reports from different coaches? You are likely to find that different coaches still rate him differently.