A Scouts Guide to Scouting - From Hiring to Buying

[jimbobBRFC]

The guide will be mostly focused around my Blackburn team 3 seasons in. I will create a separate part of the guide more focused on lower leagues without the same sort of resources. Any feedback is welcome as this is my first attempt at this sort of thing and most of all Enjoy the Read.

Changelist

25/01/2012: Minor adjustments to explanation of adaptability, added -10 to PA

25/01/2012: Second part of guide added, happy reading all

26/01/2012: Added extra line on setting up Youth Scouts to clairy the actual assignment, added a small bit at end of Setting up the Scouts section. (Credit to Romanista1994)

26/01/2012:Added final part of the guide to help with Lower League Scouting

27/01/2012:Made changes to the meanings of the star ratings (Credit to Sirtosyne)

02/02/2012: PLease see post #50 and #56 very good points made there (credit to SteveOdom and Faramir)

16/02/2012: Decided to add a third and final section to do with actually buying the players, should be up over the weekend

17/02/2012: Added section on making friends withing the game, and how it can help.

01/03/2012: Added final section of the guide and link to a thread listing regen dates

A Scouts Guide to Scouting.

Scouting, one of the most important tools available to any manager whether it be in real life or in FM. Whether it is too have a look at your upcoming opposition to discover and expolit their weaknesses, or to find the next Messi who you will nurture into the perfect footballer. The benefits of having an effective scouting setup are endless, but setting up the network effectively is something that some may overlook or may seem daunting to a new player of the football manager series. There are three real options when you are scouting. Simply leaving all your scouts as they are and hiring one excellent scout who would be used to scout a player and if the report is good make an offer for the player. Another option is using outside software (i.e Genie Scout) to find the best players possible with minimal amount of fuss. Both these options are all well and good but the third, and I believe most realistic and exciting optiong, is delving into the world of scouting. Everything from hiring the right people, setting up the team to use them too the best of their abilites and making sure you have every major option covered so that nothing can slip through your vast sea of eyes looking for the next big thing. There is nothing more depressing than seeing an Bulgarian wonderkid pop up in a CL final and score a hatrick, for you the to realise that you had nearly every continent covered apart from the one place where this kid came from. On the flip side there is no better feeling than a scout finding a player in the depths of the Brazilian leagues who you bring to England for them to turn into your most important player helping guide you to numerous trophies and awards. So this is what has lead me to starting this guide, the extreme “i’m on top of the world” highs and drunken coma inducing lows all come from one vital aspect of football management, buying players. Where do these players come from you ask? Your scouting team.

Important Attributes

The screen for a scouts attributes is the same as all other staff members, but I usually completely disregard most of the coaching information as, for somebody just scouting players not developing them, it isn't really important. The two most obvious and probably most important attributes for a scout are:

• Judging Player Ability (JPA)
  
• Judging Player Potential (JPP)
  

I also look at the following attributes:

• Nationality
  
• Adaptibility
  
• Tactical Knowledge
  

So I’ll start with the two simple ones. JPA and JPP pretty much speak for themselves. JPA is how well a scout can judge a certain players current ability, JPP is how well a scout can judge a players potential ability. Most FM players will know about CA and PA, for anyone reading this who isn’t sure they are hidden attributes assigned to every player(as I mentioned earlier I believe finding out these hidden values is unrealistic and "cheating" but bringing it up may help any new players understand how a player is rated). CA is a number between 0-200 that determines the distribution of their attributes. PA is how great the potential is for these attributes to improve, this can either be a set number between 0-200 or a value between -1 and -10. If it is a minus number the PA will be randomly generated with -9 being the best and -1 being the worst. The most important thing is that it is POTENTIAL, so a player with a -8 PA will not necessarily reach their full potential without the correct training/tutoring/game time amongst other variables. There are more in depth explanations of CA and PA hanging around the forums but that isn’t what we’re here for.

The Nationality of your scout is important. The majority of scouts have the greatest knowledge of their country of origin, so a Brazilian scout will have excellent knowledge of Brazil and pretty good knowledge of surrounding countries. This is a key thing to consider when setting up your scouting network which I will go into more detail on later.

Adaptability is key if you're planning on sending your scout to far off reaches of the globe. For example if you have an English scout who has 20 in both JPP and JPA but a 1 in adaptability he will be a brilliant scout when assigned to somewhere he is comfortable (in this case England) but if you send him to the far corners of South America he will not be comfortable and not perform to the best of his ability, I believe adaptability will affect how quickly the scouts start producing the reports more than the actual quality of there reports. This applies in a similar way to a player who becomes homesick, the lower the attribute the less chance they have of settling in and starting to perform.

Tactical Knowledge is, in my opinion, important for a scout who you are going to use to scout your opposition. A scout with a high tactical knowledge will be better equipped to inform you of potential danger men and how to best combat your next opposition, coupled with a high JPA attribute this will give you a formidable asset in planning the tactical battles you face every week.

There are other attributes that can influence how good a scout is, but these are the main attributes that I look for.

Setting up your Scouting Network, The Best Men for the Job

When taking over a new club sorting out your staff is one of the most important tasks at hand. This usually starts by viewing all of your current staff and getting rid of anyone not up to the job. After this process I always look at the number of staff I am allowed. This will influence how I set my scouts up. I also always have a structure to all of my scouting teams which looks something like this:

• A Head Scout – Responsible for the final decision before any purchases. Good all Rounder.
  
• Opposition Scout – Responsible for scouting Next Opposition. Good JPA and Tactical Knowledge.
  
• Youth Scouts – Very good JPP and adaptability.
  
• First Team Scouts – Very good JPA and adaptability.
  

My scouting allowance is split between these four sections.

As you can see I am allowed 11 scouts but tend to try to keep it to even number for reason you will soon discover. One of my scouts will be my head scout, one will be scouting my next opposition opposition and the 8 (This is where the even bit comes in too give me a nice round number) I have left will be split between Youth and First Team.

The Head Scout is the main man, the head honcho. He always has the final say on any signing I make and he is my most trusted scout. This may not always be my best scout (it does help though) but it is the one whose opinion I value most, more often than not this comes from my past experience with him i.e. how many players has he recommended to me that have turned out to be the real deal.

The Opposition Scout pretty much does what he says on the tin. He is tasked with looking at my next opposition and advising me on a good plan of action.

As you can see having a scout watching your opposition gives you access to the screen very similar t one you can see for your own club. It shows Tactics faced, Tactics used goal analysis. Everything you need to determine how to best tackle your next opposition is available on this screen and should be any good managers best friend.

The Youth Scouts are the ones responsible for finding all that young talent hidden away in reserve teams and lower leagues all over the world. I set them up to try to cover all of the main areas of the world with a very specific set up, these men need to have a very good eye for potential (JPP) and also a good adaptability attribute so they can go where I want them too whenever I require it without fear of them not performing.

The First Team Scouts are responsible for finding players that will fit straight into my first team and can instantly improve the team. Again I set these to try and cover as much of the world as possible but tend to focus more around the bigger leagues as this is where the bigger better players are. Again these men need to have a good eye for a quality player (JPA) and be able to go anywhere in the world at a moment’s notice (Adaptability).

So after you’ve recognised what attributes are important and arranged your scouting allowance to know what kind of scouts you’re looking for you best start hiring some men and get this show on the road. There is no definitive guide to what level of scout is required for what level of football but as a general rule of thumb I usually follow these guidelines:

• Top European Leagues – No less than 17 in the required attributes
  
• Second tier European – No less than 12
  
• Any lower – No less than 8/9
  

Another good rule I follow when not playing in leagues I know very well is to look at the top team in the league and check their scouts to see what sort of attribute levels they have, this can give you a very basic idea for what level of scout to go for.

It is a personal preference of mine never to go below 8/9 for the most important attributes regardless of league as I feel scouting is one of the most important things to get right, and any lower than this impedes their performance.

The nationality of the scouts your hiring is also something to take into account, I tend to have a head scout the same nationality as the manager, an opposition scout the same nationality as the league I’m playing in and my First Team/Youth Scouts from various nations, I try not to have more than one scout from the same country but sometimes this cannot be helped. The head scout being the same nationality is just a personal preference it really wouldn't make much difference to how you use him. The Opposition Scout having the same nationality as the league will help as they will already have some knowledge of the players playing in the specific league. The First/Youth Scouts will be from a wide range of countries to give me the widest possible scouting base to build on.

So now we’ve identified where we need to improve our scouts by looking at their attributes and sorted them out into the specific roles they are going to perform for the club, now it’s time to get this show on the road and send them out to do what they are paid for.

[jimbobBRFC]

Setting Up the Network, Who to Send Where?

So in the previous post I mentioned the important attributes that scouts should have, and how to set up your scouting team to, in what I believe, is the most effective way. I'll now to go into the best ways to set up your scout’s assignments so that you have the maximum possible chance of finding a gem of a player.

The head scout has a rather easy life. His main job is to give the final verdict on any players your other scouts have brought to your attention, so for this reason his job would allow him a lot of "free time" during periods when there are no real prospects on the horizon. So for this reason I usually set him up with a roaming assignment within the country of the team you are playing as, so that he is busy in-between scouting individual players. I usually find that as the season gets going and you realise where you need a player or another scout brings your attention to a player the head scout ends up with quite a few different assignments queued up, this is good, it means he is earning his money. The absolute minimum I would recommend scouting for is 2 full matches, report cards are good for a quick overview but to get a real idea two games is a must. Players have bad games so two games is eliminating the chance of watching him on his “bad day”

The opposition scout is a no brainer really and doesn’t really need much explaining. He will literally go and watch the team you are scheduled to play next and come back with a report. This report is usually brought to your attention via an email. If you follow the link to team report it gives you access to a plethora of information about your next opponent. Which, if used in the correct manner is a massive help, but I believe that is for another thread.

Your Youth Scouts are, In my opinion, the most valuable members of your scouting team. They are tasked with going out and finding the stars of the future, the players who you will mould into the perfect players to fit your style of play, whether it is the short passing game or the physical more direct style. The under 18 leagues or Youth leagues of the nation you’re playing in are an absolute must for at least one scout, I usually set my scout with the highest JPA with this assignment. This same scout will also go to the Under 21 Championships during pre season, going to watch the best young talent on the planet battle it out. The remaining three Youth Scouts are spread as well as possible around the globe. For example in my Blackburn save I have one in Central Europe, one in South America and one in Africa. The central Europe scout is a must due to all the elite leagues and teams are based in Europe, so in theory this is where the "best" young players should be found. In previous Iterations of the game and in FM12 I have found South America and Africa having a very good output of young players so this is why I have chosen these places. A couple of things to note, where you send these remaining scouts is entirely down to personal preference, some players may argue they have found a massive amount of great regens in Asia but this is just where I believe the best talents are too be found. Also for my youth scouts I never put in any attribute requirements as young players can be, to some extent, moulded to how you would like them to play so any specific attributes are irrelevant, the only attribute I do consider is adaptability, more so when players are coming from foreign countries. This isn’t to say a 16yr old DC with 1 for tackling would make it anywhere near my team, just thought I'd clear up the reason for having no attribute specific instructions. Whilst on the subject of actualy instructions I would advise never setting the age over 21, 21 is the absolute maximum age if you really want them to develop into the type of player you want. The majority of the time I use 18 as a maximum age as you are trying to find the best young players.

Finally, onto the First Team Scouts. These fine gentlemen are tasked with finding the best of the best, the players out there who can make an instant impact in your side that could potentially be the catalyst for a great season. They need to be able to fit straight into your side and do a job well. I usually split my scouts into two teams, Elite leagues and not so elite leagues. For example in my Blackburn save I have the "elite scouts". One who alternates between Spain and Italy and the other between Germany and France. I believe these are the four main leagues that need to be looked at (I don’t scout the EPL as I am playing in it so can see who is/ and isn’t worth buying). I usually change switch the leagues they are covering about January. These two usually have very attribute specific tasks, for example I may be looking for a ball playing defender so I will factor in the required attributes. Also when scouting from foreign leagues, as with the youth scouts, I almost always factor in adaptability as I believe it is key for a player who you want to come into your side and instantly do a job, and do it well. The other two "not so elite league" scouts (should really have thought of a catchier name) are still rather specific but to such an extent. I always have one assigned to Brazil (I have a thing for Brazilian players) and the other is usually a throw up between Portugal/Belgium/America/Russia. You know them places that have a couple of outstanding teams and players. These are usually more country specific rather than league specific and I don’t usually have as many attribute specific factors on these two. The only attributes I do consider are again adaptability and the style of football your team plays. For example I always like all my squads to have relatively good passing/composure/decisions etc (im a sucker for Tika-Taka) so these attributes are always factored in. I tend to look at it like the first two scouts are very player specific, they are going out to find a certain player that you know your team needs. The second two are more 'look here's an unknown midfield sensation playing for Genk I think he would do well for the team'.

For any manager in charge of a say lower EPL team, who have the regions available but maybe not the staff available have the option to set a roaming assignment of say South America, and then set them to also look at the Brazlian Youth Leagues whilst over there. This gives a mix of older and younger players coming through in the scout reports, they may not spend as much time on each assignment as two seperate scouts, but it is a very valid option for teams short on staff (Credit to Romanista1994 for bringing this to my attention and to SFraser for first outlining this idea). So that about sums up how I set out my scouting network, to quickly summarise I have the Head Scout casting his eye over any potential signings, his word is final. The opposition scouts looking at who I will be playing next. My Youth Scouts covering England, Central Europe, South America and Africa. The First Team Scouts covering Italy, Spain, France, Germany and any other obsucre league you think it is worth having a look at. A lot of where you send your scouts is down to personal preference, It’s the assignment setting and making sure you have all of the places covered which I believe to be the key point to take from this. Now we move onto the reports themselves

The Scouts Reports, Understanding what they mean

So you’ve found a player, he looks like he would be a great addition to the team so you ask your head scout to cast his all knowing eye over him. Excellent he goes away for three games comes back and you get an email that looks something like this:

.

It will give a brief indication of how they played in the match and then a recommendation on whether they are good enough for the team. A general rule I follow here is that if the player is any less than a fairly good player for the team they don’t even get looked at again, signing players is all about improving your squad, and even a rotation option who you’ve signed as short term cover should be good enough. I usually follow a structure which goes something like I always buy a player better than my current, never worse. Then the player who was been starting becomes my backup. I believe this is the best way to build a good squad. So anyway let’s say you get a player who your scout believes to be a quality signing i.e. our good friend Neymar here

I have circled his strengths and in particular the line that says “Neymar is a player who enjoys the big matches”. This is an indication of the hidden attribute “big matches”. Things like injury proness, professionalism are shown along this left and hand column. The scouts are the only way to find out more information about a players hidden attributes (without using outside tools which as I have previously stated I condone), so it gives you very useful information about the player in question. These are usually shown in the Personality (Professionalism), Strengths and weaknesses sections. This is vital in deciding whether a player fits into your squad. Another important part of this left hand column is the positions section, this shows where your scout believes the player plays best. As you see Neymar’s best position is a Treq. This doesn’t mean he won’t make an equally adept Deep Lying Forward this is just where, considering attributes, your scout believes he will be best placed. The final part of the left hand column is the Transfer Information section, this shows the chances your scout believes you have of securing the players signature. As you can see Neymar will have no intention of joining my club, this is usually pretty accurate. The right hand column of the scout report shows how well the player will fit into the team and compare him too other players of a similar position. As you can see it shows Current Ability, Potential ability and a nice little chart with gold stars showing how he compares to other players in a more picturesque form. To round off the scout report it shows a scouts recommendation of the player, in this case Neymar is a definite purchase.

From your youth scouts you will probably see slightly different reports. They are more based around potential than actual ability. So here is a regen named Ruben currently playing for Getafe:

The layout of the report is exactly the same, with the left hand column showing the same things as Neymars report i.e. Strengths, Weaknesses, Positions etc. It is the left hand column which is slightly different. As you can see in current ability it tells me that he is nowhere near the standard of my best striker, which is a given he is only 16. Secondly it rates him against my best YOUNG striker, which is Fierro who again is considerably older at 20. If you now look at the star chart Ruben is in Silver Stars not Gold Stars. In a similar way to which Gold Stars show a players level of ability in relation to your current squad silver stars are exactly the same just for younger players, so most youngsters will have silver stars for there ability unless they are outstanding and good enough to be compared with your First Team Squad (credit to Sirtosyne for mentioning this). . It is important to remember that the star rating is relative to your current squad, so a player with a 5star rating for Crawley Town would probably only have a 1 star rating for Man Utd, if you see what I’m saying. This is what I believe a lot of FM players get wrong, and sign a five star rated player wondering why he isn’t running rings around the whole Utd team. But as you can see this Ruben character would be an outstanding signing. In the Potential Ability section the player is compared to other players in the league and it considers how good he can turn out to be. Again the final piece of a scout report is the scout’s recommendation which as you can see is a definite purchase.

Another point to note before finishing this section is that if you look in the top left corner of the report you will see your scouts name, this gives you the option to view previous scout reports to see how different scouts rate the same player, again a very useful tool. The scout reports don’t necessarily mean any player will be good, it is just comparing the player to your own team and giving you the information in a understandable form, the player in question still needs to be player in the right position and in the right system to be effective.

[jimbobBRFC]

The Lower Leagues, What to do Different?

Scouting in the lower leagues can be one of the most important parts of the club, it can help you find the players who will massively improve the team without trawling through pages and pages of very average players maybe finding one or two prospects. When managing a big club most football fans know the good signings just from simply following football. The likes of Gotze, Eriksen, Cavani etc. who most people know as the next "big thing" or players who have already proved they have quality. In the lower leagues this isn't always the case, which I believe gives that extra enjoyment to scouting, finding that complete hidden gem, rather than just signing a player because you know he is brilliant in real life. In the lower leagues you really have to know the scouts you have are of a high quality so that you can make the best possible judgement on a player who, most likely, you will have never heard of.

In the lower leagues I try to keep a very similar setup to in big leagues, the only difference being there are quite a few less positions available. It is also a fairly reasonable assumption to make that most lower teams will have a limited scouting range, i.e most BSP sides can only scout Great Britain. So a small amount of staff coupled with a limited scouting range gives you less options and less potential players, this gives a problem. Lets say for example you are allowed 5 scouts. An Opposition scout is a absolute necesity for any team, so we've lost one striaght away. This gives us 4 scouts to play with. There are going to be some rather busy scouts at this club. A Head Scout is also something I would say that all clubs need, but down in the lower leagues he may have to have multiple jobs. The head scout should be given an assignment that isn't massively important, or not extreamely time consuming. Simply scouting the whole country for any player is enough, that way you have all of the current country covered. When a prospect appears assign him too your head scout (again for a minimum of two games) but leave the UK and Ireland assignment active. The scout will thne proceed to compile the reports on the individual, and continue with UK and Ireland once he has finished. So thats Head Scout and the whole of UK and Ireland covered.

This leaves three remaining scouts who should be really need to be spread between youth, specific players and season changers, three scouts three assignments, loverly. Set the scout with the highest JPP to the under 18 leagues, with the highest JPA to the specific player finder and the final remaining scout roaming the country, similar to your head scout but a bit more full time. This allows you to have all current avenues covered, and makes sure that nobody from your current selection of players slips through the net. A good setup of these scouts to start with can be very important as you move up the leagues, and are allowed to look further and further a field, start as you mean to go on.

A very important point I'd like to make before the end of this section is to do with board requests and more specifically expanding scouting boundries. Once you can start scouting more and more of the world you have an expanding selection of players to choose from, this in turn increases the chances of finding that gem of a player. Coupled with this is asking for your scout allowance to be increased, giving you that extra one maybe two scouts to jet off too the youth and top league of whichever country your board allows you to go off and scout.

Lets bring this thing to an end

So there it is, what I believe to be a complete guide to scouting. I've not suggested anything radical but that's not what the aim of this thread was to do, I aimed to create a thread that any new players, or veterans looking for that new outlook on things, can use to help kick on with there games. A lot of scouting is down to personal preference, I like Brazlian players so I spend a lot of time scouting Brazl and the surrounding areas. Another FM players may find African players always do an excellent job for there teams, so there scouting will probably be more focused around that region of the world. It's all down to what you see fit for the game. I have tried to point out the best ways to set up the scouts to give yourself the best possible chance of finding a player that will change your season, or a Belgian regen that you snap up before he signs for another top European team to score against you in a CL final (as you've probably noticed I have a thing against this Belgian regen). That's what an effective scouting network is all about, one of the most, if not the most, important tool given to any manager and if used correctly a very powerful one. Im sure you have enough of my mindless ramblings now, cheers for reading,

Jimbob

[jimbobBRFC]

The Buying Guide

Recently it was pointed out to me that the title of this thread is A guide to hiring AND buying, but yet there is nothing in the guide about actually buying the players, so im just going to give my opinion on the matter. It isn’t going to be a massive piece like the rest of the guide but just my two cents.

How to make friends and alienate people

The actual purchasing of a player from a club starts well before the bid is actually made and the player arrives for his first day of training. It can be an intricate web of unsettling the player, making friends in the right places and a little bit of money throw in there as well. So where to begin, well the obvious place to begin would be to run through the rest of this guide so that you have worked out the best player for your team. Then this is where the real fun starts.

A personal preference of mine is always to try and be friendly with every manager that I come across (apart from Steve Kean, that’s personal), so that means when another manager makes a comment about you in the media or your asked about another teams chances etc I am always quite upbeat and try to say the nicest¬ thing I can. This will give you quite a good rapport with most other managers in your league, and probably a good relationship with the media. This is only me theorising about how this helps but I do believe it is helpful. A manager who you have a good relationship with is more likely to accept a bid for a player in their team, or maybe let a player go out on loan for less of a fee. This Is an obvious benefit in that you lose less money, so in the words of the great Aleksandr Orlo, simples.

So you’ve started creating a good rapport with other managers, and your quite a favourable man in the footballing world. You have found a transfer target, or maybe a couple of targets who fit the bill and are in the exact mould of the player you want. The first thing I do is send an enquiry to the team, the majority of time this will be dismissed but when they do ocme back with a figure it gives a good idea of what yo may need to pay. Whilst this is going on I usually have some form of interaction with the player in question. So I may say Player X has the potential outstanding talent” for a youngster, or something like “Player X is a player every manager would like to manager”, you get the idea. Just try and big the player up in anyway, unsettle them make them maybe feel unhappy. Declaring interest is a very dual edged sword. Most of us will have had that situation where an outside club ahs declared interest in a player, then this player in question has asked for a new contract. Well the same will happen when you declare your interest. So this raises two possibilities, number one the player you have declared interest in will sign a new contract with a £10,000,000,000 release cause, thus ending any hope of every getting anywhere near him. Ok I did go a bit mad with the 0’s but you get the jist. The other possibility is that the club will not give him a new contract, putting the player in question in a lot of doubt. This is where you come in. By this time the club will probably have returned your enquiry with a piece of paper displaying two rather rudely displayed fingers, that’s ok at that time the player wasn’t the devil reincarnated, so you throw down a transfer bid. What we go through in the actually negotiating will all be revealed soon enough.

Negotiating A Deal, Ok We Have To Spend Some Money Now

So looking back over everything that has been discussed in this thread you have found yourself the perfect player. He is that one man you need to turn your team from good to great, and your willing to pay whatever it costs to get your man. But why should you? Why risk 10’s of millions on this one man who may be an absolute flop, like that Fernando fella’ we all know and love. You want to try and get your moneys worth, like that man whos name sounds like the noise a sheep makes, what did he cost? Oh yeah that’s right nothing. So it’s ok finding the perfect player, but you’ve got to know how much is the perfect price.

This is where negotiating comes into play, whether it be with the club or with the agents. Usually the best place to start is at their value. As a general rule of thumb a player who is transfer listedyou should be able to get for a price that is similar to their value. For a player whois not transfer listedexpect to pay top dollar for their services. If they are transfer listed its all fine and dandy, submit your bit and wait for it to be accepted, gets accepted bang job done. For a non listed player things get a lot more interesting. I always start with a look at the scout report, as there is usually an indication on there of how much you should expect to pay, and in my experience, the majority of the time it’s about right. I always start by sending off an enquiry, these usually get returned saying the player is not available but on the off chance they give back a value it gives you a rough figure. If the enquiry comes back dismissing your enquiry I always go in at the value of the player, as this is what they are worth, so you should really try and pay as close to that as possible. 9 times out of 10 this will be laughed at and thrown back at you. Sometimes you get a negotiation back which is usually pretty ridiculous. NEVER EVER PAY THE FIRST NEGOTIATION!!!! In my experience they will always come down from what they first offer. Now from here There is no way I could tell you how much to pay for a player as I couldn’t estimate everyone’s transfer budgets, club rep, personal transfer structures etc… so my advice here is pay what seams realistic. Don’t be splashing out millions on an average RB who you know you’re only signing as a backup, see what I mean.

So your offers been accepted after many sleepless nights and strenuous negotiations. Tired? Get some rest that was the easy part, we now have the agents to deal with. The bane of every football managers very existence, and anyone who disagrees has never played the game. So you go into negotiations with this 17 year old wonder kid wanting £45,000 a week (Morrison, Pogba anyone?) obviously this is not going to happen. Ill always go down to at least half of what they ask unless it is a reasonable offer (which I don’t think I have seen yet). Going down to half of what they ask for will never usually cause them to walk away but it will give you a lower limit of what they are prepared to accept. In my opinion clauses and loyalty bonuses are the way forward. I always try to get the actual wage as low as possible, then try to add in clauses that the player in question will never reach. For example building a bonus for league goals scored into the contract of a CB, lets say 10 goals. The chances of a CB reaching 10 goals, without the use of any corner glitches, is highly unlikely. It also gives the player an incentive to sign. I find another good clause is team of the year bonuses, I have found a player rarely ever gets put in the TOY so this bonus is one you will not have to pay out very often. The best way to get a player to sign is by maxing out his loyalty bonus, now I never really understood loyalty bonuses until about a month back, so I will try to explain how I understand it. Say the player in questions loyalty bonus in 1mill. If he requests a transfer he does not receive this bonus, whilst he is at the club he is paid this bonus in instalments until the end of his contract, if you try to sell him before the end of his contract he receives what ever money you owe in a straight payment. So half way through his contract, you sell him, you pay him £500k, simple? Right? That’s how I understand it anyway.

So there we have it you have your player and everything is going spiffingly, your bargain signed ST is bashing in goals left right and centre and your free agent goalkeeper who you scouted in a desert in Bahrain just saved a penalty to win you the Champions League final, who said this scouting malarkey isn’t all its cracked up to be.

Cheers for reading

Jimbob

Regens, when will they arrive

A very good point has been brought up later on in this thread about regens and regen dates, rather than copy in a complete list and take us masses of space in the thread there is a link here to a thread with the dates on, I think its from about post 18 down.

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/279093-Will-FM-12-Regens-occur-on-same-days-as-in-FM11?p=7196476&viewfull=1#post7196476

This can be used to help plan where in the world your Youth Scouts are going to be to help maximise the return on good youngsters, hope this helps

[Anxiietyyy]

Good job man! Looking forward to the rest of it!

[The Welsh Lad]

A few things thing I think you could expand one or need to add:

1.) Determination and Level Of Discipline should be considered for scouts because if you send a scout out to a country where he doesn't have knowledge these Attributes will make him more proficient in his reporting and in the speed at which he finds players.

Think of it in a real-life scenario, if your mate Dave has Low Determination and Level of Discipline and you send him to Holland, he will most prob spend most of his time in Amsterdam than looking for players.

Determination - Willingness to get out of Bed in the morning in a county in the back and beyond.

Level of Discipline - How likely he will stick to his given tasks.

2.) Adaptability only counts for a staffs members ability to settle in your club and country, not in going to other countries.

3.) Whilst I understand it personal preference but it is worth having 2 league scouts one for the main league (Serie A, La Liga etc.) and one for the relevant youth leagues.

Apart from that is a good thread, so far, looking forward to the rest.

[jimbobBRFC]

A few things thing I think you could expand one or need to add:

1.) Determination and Level Of Discipline should be considered for scouts because if you send a scout out to a country where he doesn't have knowledge these Attributes will make him more proficient in his reporting and in the speed at which he finds players.

Think of it in a real-life scenario, if your mate Dave has Low Determination and Level of Discipline and you send him to Holland, he will most prob spend most of his time in Amsterdam than looking for players.

Determination - Willingness to get out of Bed in the morning in a county in the back and beyond.

Level of Discipline - How likely he will stick to his given tasks.

2.) Adaptability only counts for a staffs members ability to settle in your club and country, not in going to other countries.

3.) Whilst I understand it personal preference but it is worth having 2 league scouts one for the main league (Serie A, La Liga etc.) and one for the relevant youth leagues.

Apart from that is a good thread, so far, looking forward to the rest.

Cheers for the advice, I'll see what I can build in, this is what I was hoping it would start, the discussion like this probably be tomorrow I get the next part up.

[Welshace]

great start mate

also.. just one little point .. ca/pa... there's -10 too ......

and you might want to add this info to clarify it ...

NEGATIVE NUMBER DISTRIBUTION

•-10 = 170-200

•-9 = 150-180

•-8 = 130-160

•-7 = 110-140

•-6 = 90-120

•-5 = 70-100

•-4 = 50-80

•-3 = 30-60

•-2 = 10-40

•-1 = 0-30

[Ty]

How gutted would you be if you was in the game as a -1

[The Welsh Lad]

great start mate

also.. just one little point .. ca/pa... there's -10 too ......

and you might want to add this info to clarify it ...

NEGATIVE NUMBER DISTRIBUTION

•-10 = 170-200

•-9 = 150-180

•-8 = 130-160

•-7 = 110-140

•-6 = 90-120

•-5 = 70-100

•-4 = 50-80

•-3 = 30-60

•-2 = 10-40

•-1 = 0-30

This would only count if he intends to go that far into hidden stats. CA and PA are not known to the player without using external tools when staff is concerned. You can determine how good a scout is just by looking at his visible attributes and that is the way I think the OP intends the thread to go.

[The Welsh Lad]

Just took my time re-reading the post and he contradicts himself. In his opening paragraph he stats that if you don't want to use scouts to find player then use Genie Scout but then later on discusses player potential ability using the hidden amounts.

He should have concentrated on the Star rating because then it would be more tailored to each individual game player because of the different teams and levels. Its important to do it this way I believe because a -7 potential rated youngster for a Championship/League 1 side may be reported has a 5 Star Potential compared to the human players team, but the same player would be rated 3 1/2 for a top four team.

[jimbobBRFC]

@welshlad if you give me chance to finish the whole thing I will explain about different levels of football and how good an individual player is in the section about understanding the reports. I don't believe that's a contradiction either I was saying Genie Scout isn't realistic then mentioned CA/PA in relation too a players rating, no where do I say look at the hidden attributes

@welshace cheers for that info but as WelshLad said I don't intend the thread to go that way, I mentioned CA/PA as I thought I was appropriate to put in too better describe how players are rated, to give a greater understanding. I'll pop the -10 in as well forgot that one

[The Welsh Lad]

@welshlad if you give me chance to finish the whole thing I will explain about different levels of football and how good an individual player is in the section about understanding the reports. I don't believe that's a contradiction either I was saying Genie Scout isn't realistic then mentioned CA/PA in relation too a players rating, no where do I say look at the hidden attributes

@welshace cheers for that info but as WelshLad said I don't intend the thread to go that way, I mentioned CA/PA as I thought I was appropriate to put in too better describe how players are rated, to give a greater understanding. I'll pop the -10 in as well forgot that one

Sorry jimbob for jumping the gun, just the way my head reads things and processes it.

[Purefun]

Good start mate.

[jimbobBRFC]

No probl Welsh Lad, the criticism only encourages me to do better, I can sort of see where the confusion lies after a re read this morning, I'll make some amendments.

Thanks for the kind words everyone, will get the next part up tonight

[mikcheck]

A few things thing I think you could expand one or need to add:

1.) Determination and Level Of Discipline should be considered for scouts because if you send a scout out to a country where he doesn't have knowledge these Attributes will make him more proficient in his reporting and in the speed at which he finds players.

Think of it in a real-life scenario, if your mate Dave has Low Determination and Level of Discipline and you send him to Holland, he will most prob spend most of his time in Amsterdam than looking for players.

Determination - Willingness to get out of Bed in the morning in a county in the back and beyond.

Level of Discipline - How likely he will stick to his given tasks.

2.) Adaptability only counts for a staffs members ability to settle in your club and country, not in going to other countries.

3.) Whilst I understand it personal preference but it is worth having 2 league scouts one for the main league (Serie A, La Liga etc.) and one for the relevant youth leagues.

Apart from that is a good thread, so far, looking forward to the rest.

It is extremely difficult to find someone with all those stats for a scout. I can barely find one with good Determination.

Edit: I've only found one but maybe i'll be lucky in the future.

[django_z]

I'm enjoying the post and look forward to the next 3 parts!

I am curious about a few things though. I thought I read someone's post on these forums that Determination, Level of Discipline and Adaptability make absolutely no difference in a scout's performance. They did rather extensive research on this with multiple tests. So unless one of you has new knowledge that is confirmed, I think you might want to reconsider these assumptions.

According to the other post (pardon me if my paraphrasing isn't so good): some scouts turn up 3 times as many prospects as other scouts and there was no discernible attribute correlation with this difference in performance.

[Maestroik]

Nice read so far.

Perhaps screenshots of possible scouts who fit the profile too such as Gilmar Francisco ( Chief Scout )and Luciano D'Onofrio ( Next Opposition )

[jimbobBRFC]

I'm enjoying the post and look forward to the next 3 parts!

I am curious about a few things though. I thought I read someone's post on these forums that Determination, Level of Discipline and Adaptability make absolutely no difference in a scout's performance. They did rather extensive research on this with multiple tests. So unless one of you has new knowledge that is confirmed, I think you might want to reconsider these assumptions.

I havn't done any tests to prove this so maybe I am in no place to say that but it is a perfectly valid assumption IMO. Surely if the attributes had no meaning they would not be there as they would be purely for show. I believe that it doesnt change the LEVEL of the scouting report but more to do with HOW QUICK the scouts start producing there reports once a new assignment has been set.

Nice read so far.

Perhaps screenshots of possible scouts who fit the profile too such as Gilmar Francisco ( Chief Scout )and Luciano D'Onofrio ( Next Opposition )

Good shout on the screenshots, ill bring something in at the end

[joekim87]

Looking good. Interesting read. I think I'll take into account how you have a head scout etc as well.

[jimbobBRFC]

second part of the guide now finished, Happy reading all, I look forward to your feedback

[john1]

Not bad write up. I tends to sign scouts with high determination( No lower than 15) plus JPA and JPP. Depends on which club I'm at.

[mikcheck]

jimbobBRFC when you send your youth scouts, what is the maximum age do you require?

[jimbobBRFC]

jimbobBRFC when you send your youth scouts, what is the maximum age do you require?

Usually set it as 21 as any player under that age still has years left to develop. Although for the scout that is looking at the UNder 18 leagues then obviously max age will be 18 as they wouldnt find any players

[mikcheck]

Thanks. One more question. Firts Team Scouts search the kind of players you want by filling the required attributes. But that's almost the same thing as using the filter search, right? Thanks and good thread.

[jimbobBRFC]

Thanks. One more question. Firts Team Scouts search the kind of players you want by filling the required attributes. But that's almost the same thing as using the filter search, right? Thanks and good thread.

Yeah it is the same but using the filter search gives you hundreds of players that you will need to manually look through, if your scouts are out they find the players for you, if you've noticed when you go to the player search some players have star ratings some don't the ones with star ratings are players your scouts have already looked at. So the more players you have scouted the easier it is to find a "good" player for your team. Hope that answers your question

[mikcheck]

It certainly did. Thanks and keep it up

[jimbobBRFC]

No problem Should hopefully get the last little bit finished tonight, Im busy though so may get to tomorrow

[JamboSteven]

I enjoyed reading your thread, thanks for taking the time to post it. I use some of the techniques you have outlined but will certainly be looking into others that I did not consider.

I have one question though. If I max my club's scouting knowledge in a country, I'll use France as an example, does that mean that when using the "Player Search" function EVERY player based in France will show up?

[jimbobBRFC]

I enjoyed reading your thread, thanks for taking the time to post it. I use some of the techniques you have outlined but will certainly be looking into others that I did not consider.

I have one question though. If I max my club's scouting knowledge in a country, I'll use France as an example, does that mean that when using the "Player Search" function EVERY player based in France will show up?

Not necasirily (spelling) if you start a new game as say United you will have full knowledge of England and I would of thought quite a few other countries. This does not mean you will have a scout REPORT for every player who plays in England, so to an extent I would say the answer to your question is no. Although maxing out the scouting knowledge will show a lot more players it obviously wont make reports available for every single player. Hope that helps

[Romanista1994]

A very good write up, jimbobBRFC.

I've got a few things to mention, however:

The first concerns the Strengths/Weaknesses section.

In the Strengths section you can see some hidden attributes (a few of which you've mentioned already) like Consistency, Adaptability, low Injury Proneness and Big Matches for the latter I imagine that enjoys is 15-17, relishes 18-19 and thrives in 20. The other attributes have similar messages depending on the level of the attribute, but I don't know the exact values for those.

In the Weaknesses section you can find out about Injury Proneness, Dirtiness and the previously mentioned hidden attributes when they're low, again with different messages depending on the level of the attribute.

The second thing is perhaps something you've missed/don't know about:

When setting up your scouts' assignments you can give him a roaming assginment AND a competition to scout at the same time. This means that you can scout much more efficiently, for example sending a scout to South America and at the same time having him scout the Brazilian youth league. This means you get a number of reports from a number of South American countries and at the same time lots of reports of players doing well in a reputed youth league. This basically means that you don't necessarily have to divide your scouts into Youth and First Team scouts but can have them doing two jobs at the same time (and definitely earning their wages!).

[jimbobBRFC]

A very good write up, jimbobBRFC.

I've got a few things to mention, however:

The first concerns the Strengths/Weaknesses section.

In the Strengths section you can see some hidden attributes (a few of which you've mentioned already) like Consistency, Adaptability, low Injury Proneness and Big Matches for the latter I imagine that enjoys is 15-17, relishes 18-19 and thrives in 20. The other attributes have similar messages depending on the level of the attribute, but I don't know the exact values for those.

In the Weaknesses section you can find out about Injury Proneness, Dirtiness and the previously mentioned hidden attributes when they're low, again with different messages depending on the level of the attribute.

The second thing is perhaps something you've missed/don't know about:

When setting up your scouts' assignments you can give him a roaming assginment AND a competition to scout at the same time. This means that you can scout much more efficiently, for example sending a scout to South America and at the same time having him scout the Brazilian youth league. This means you get a number of reports from a number of South American countries and at the same time lots of reports of players doing well in a reputed youth league. This basically means that you don't necessarily have to divide your scouts into Youth and First Team scouts but can have them doing two jobs at the same time (and definitely earning their wages!).

cheers I dont quite understand what point your trying to make with the first thing? I thought I explained that fully in the post

About your second point I didnt know that, Surely roaming South America and scouting Brazilian youth leagues would mean they spend the majority of their time in Brazil, rather than the whole of South America. Leaving some nations not properly looked at. Ive never thought about doing it for that reason. If you dont mind I'd like to add that point into the post. With full credit to you obviously.

[Romanista1994]

cheers I dont quite understand what point your trying to make with the first thing? I thought I explained that fully in the post

About your second point I didnt know that, Surely roaming South America and scouting Brazilian youth leagues would mean they spend the majority of their time in Brazil, rather than the whole of South America. Leaving some nations not properly looked at. Ive never thought about doing it for that reason. If you dont mind I'd like to add that point into the post. With full credit to you obviously.

The first one was just a bit more detail, though your post did cover it pretty well already. And thanks for giving me the credit, but it should really go to SFraser, who was the first person I saw mentioning it.

[sirtosyne]

Thanks. One more question. Firts Team Scouts search the kind of players you want by filling the required attributes. But that's almost the same thing as using the filter search, right? Thanks and good thread.

I might be wrong on this but I recently discovered that the level of scouting knowledge your club has of a particular country determines how many player's turn up when you perform a player search especially the younger players. A club with a low scouting knowledge of Brazil for instance would probably only find 20% of the all Brazilian players when a player search is performed. Am open to correction on this though.

[jimbobBRFC]

The first one was just a bit more detail, though your post did cover it pretty well already. And thanks for giving me the credit, but it should really go to SFraser, who was the first person I saw mentioning it.

I'll throw something in about that then, and credit the both of you

I might be wrong on this but I recently discovered that the level of scouting knowledge your club has of a particular country determines how many player's turn up when you perform a player search especially the younger players. A club with a low scouting knowledge of Brazil for instance would probably only find 20% of the all Brazilian players when a player search is performed. Am open to correction on this though.

That seems a pretty logical explanation of how it works, I always presumed something along similar lines to this.

[sirtosyne]

Setting Up the Network, Who to Send Where?

So in the previous post I mentioned the important attributes that scouts should have, and how to set up your scouting team to, in what I believe, is the most effective way. I'll now to go into the best ways to set up your scout’s assignments so that you have the maximum possible chance of finding a gem of a player.

The head scout has a rather easy life. His main job is to give the final verdict on any players your other scouts have brought to your attention, so for this reason his job would allow him a lot of "free time" during periods when there are no real prospects on the horizon. So for this reason I usually set him up with a roaming assignment within the country of the team you are playing as, so that he is busy in-between scouting individual players. I usually find that as the season gets going and you realise where you need a player or another scout brings your attention to a player the head scout ends up with quite a few different assignments queued up, this is good, it means he is earning his money. The absolute minimum I would recommend scouting for is 2 full matches, report cards are good for a quick overview but to get a real idea two games is a must. Players have bad games so two games is eliminating the chance of watching him on his “bad day”

The opposition scout is a no brainer really and doesn’t really need much explaining. He will literally go and watch the team you are scheduled to play next and come back with a report. This report is usually brought to your attention via an email. If you follow the link to team report it gives you access to a plethora of information about your next opponent. Which, if used in the correct manner is a massive help, but I believe that is for another thread.

Your Youth Scouts are, In my opinion, the most valuable members of your scouting team. They are tasked with going out and finding the stars of the future, the players who you will mould into the perfect players to fit your style of play, whether it is the short passing game or the physical more direct style. The under 18 leagues or Youth leagues of the nation you’re playing in are an absolute must for at least one scout, I usually set my scout with the highest JPA with this assignment. This same scout will also go to the Under 21 Championships during pre season, going to watch the best young talent on the planet battle it out. The remaining three Youth Scouts are spread as well as possible around the globe. For example in my Blackburn save I have one in Central Europe, one in South America and one in Africa. The central Europe scout is a must due to all the elite leagues and teams are based in Europe, so in theory this is where the "best" young players should be found. In previous Iterations of the game and in FM12 I have found South America and Africa having a very good output of young players so this is why I have chosen these places. A couple of things to note, where you send these remaining scouts is entirely down to personal preference, some players may argue they have found a massive amount of great regens in Asia but this is just where I believe the best talents are too be found. Also for my youth scouts I never put in any attribute requirements as young players can be, to some extent, moulded to how you would like them to play so any specific attributes are irrelevant, the only attribute I do consider is adaptability, more so when players are coming from foreign countries. This isn’t to say a 16yr old DC with 1 for tackling would make it anywhere near my team, just thought I'd clear up the reason for having no attribute specific instructions. Whilst on the subject of actualy instructions I would advise never setting the age over 21, 21 is the absolute maximum age if you really want them to develop into the type of player you want. The majority of the time I use 18 as a maximum age as you are trying to find the best young players.

Finally, onto the First Team Scouts. These fine gentlemen are tasked with finding the best of the best, the players out there who can make an instant impact in your side that could potentially be the catalyst for a great season. They need to be able to fit straight into your side and do a job well. I usually split my scouts into two teams, Elite leagues and not so elite leagues. For example in my Blackburn save I have the "elite scouts". One who alternates between Spain and Italy and the other between Germany and France. I believe these are the four main leagues that need to be looked at (I don’t scout the EPL as I am playing in it so can see who is/ and isn’t worth buying). I usually change switch the leagues they are covering about January. These two usually have very attribute specific tasks, for example I may be looking for a ball playing defender so I will factor in the required attributes. Also when scouting from foreign leagues, as with the youth scouts, I almost always factor in adaptability as I believe it is key for a player who you want to come into your side and instantly do a job, and do it well. The other two "not so elite league" scouts (should really have thought of a catchier name) are still rather specific but to such an extent. I always have one assigned to Brazil (I have a thing for Brazilian players) and the other is usually a throw up between Portugal/Belgium/America/Russia. You know them places that have a couple of outstanding teams and players. These are usually more country specific rather than league specific and I don’t usually have as many attribute specific factors on these two. The only attributes I do consider are again adaptability and the style of football your team plays. For example I always like all my squads to have relatively good passing/composure/decisions etc (im a sucker for Tika-Taka) so these attributes are always factored in. I tend to look at it like the first two scouts are very player specific, they are going out to find a certain player that you know your team needs. The second two are more 'look here's an unknown midfield sensation playing for Genk I think he would do well for the team'.

For any manager in charge of a say lower EPL team, who have the regions available but maybe not the staff available have the option to set a roaming assignment of say South America, and then set them to also look at the Brazlian Youth Leagues whilst over there. This gives a mix of older and younger players coming through in the scout reports, they may not spend as much time on each assignment as two seperate scouts, but it is a very valid option for teams short on staff (Credit to Romanista1994 for bringing this to my attention and to SFraser for first outlining this idea). So that about sums up how I set out my scouting network, to quickly summarise I have the Head Scout casting his eye over any potential signings, his word is final. The opposition scouts looking at who I will be playing next. My Youth Scouts covering England, Central Europe, South America and Africa. The First Team Scouts covering Italy, Spain, France, Germany and any other obsucre league you think it is worth having a look at. A lot of where you send your scouts is down to personal preference, It’s the assignment setting and making sure you have all of the places covered which I believe to be the key point to take from this. Now we move onto the reports themselves

The Scouts Reports, Understanding what they mean

So you’ve found a player, he looks like he would be a great addition to the team so you ask your head scout to cast his all knowing eye over him. Excellent he goes away for three games comes back and you get an email that looks something like this:

.

It will give a brief indication of how they played in the match and then a recommendation on whether they are good enough for the team. A general rule I follow here is that if the player is any less than a fairly good player for the team they don’t even get looked at again, signing players is all about improving your squad, and even a rotation option who you’ve signed as short term cover should be good enough. I usually follow a structure which goes something like I always buy a player better than my current, never worse. Then the player who was been starting becomes my backup. I believe this is the best way to build a good squad. So anyway let’s say you get a player who your scout believes to be a quality signing i.e. our good friend Neymar here

I have circled his strengths and in particular the line that says “Neymar is a player who enjoys the big matches”. This is an indication of the hidden attribute “big matches”. Things like injury proness, professionalism are shown along this left and hand column. The scouts are the only way to find out more information about a players hidden attributes (without using outside tools which as I have previously stated I condone), so it gives you very useful information about the player in question. These are usually shown in the Personality (Professionalism), Strengths and weaknesses sections. This is vital in deciding whether a player fits into your squad. Another important part of this left hand column is the positions section, this shows where your scout believes the player plays best. As you see Neymar’s best position is a Treq. This doesn’t mean he won’t make an equally adept Deep Lying Forward this is just where, considering attributes, your scout believes he will be best placed. The final part of the left hand column is the Transfer Information section, this shows the chances your scout believes you have of securing the players signature. As you can see Neymar will have no intention of joining my club, this is usually pretty accurate. The right hand column of the scout report shows how well the player will fit into the team and compare him too other players of a similar position. As you can see it shows Current Ability, Potential ability and a nice little chart with gold stars showing how he compares to other players in a more picturesque form. To round off the scout report it shows a scouts recommendation of the player, in this case Neymar is a definite purchase.

From your youth scouts you will probably see slightly different reports. They are more based around potential than actual ability. So here is a regen named Ruben currently playing for Getafe:

The layout of the report is exactly the same, with the left hand column showing the same things as Neymars report i.e. Strengths, Weaknesses, Positions etc. It is the left hand column which is slightly different. As you can see in current ability it tells me that he is nowhere near the standard of my best striker, which is a given he is only 16. Secondly it rates him against my best YOUNG striker, which is Fierro who again is considerably older at 20. If you now look at the star chart Ruben is in Silver Stars not Gold Stars. In a similar way to which Gold Stars show a player CA in relation to your current squad silver stars show a players PA. It is important to remember that the star rating is relative to your current squad, so a player with a 5star rating for Crawley Town would probably only have a 1 star rating for Man Utd, if you see what I’m saying. This is what I believe a lot of FM players get wrong, and sign a five star rated player wondering why he isn’t running rings around the whole Utd team. But as you can see this Ruben character would be an outstanding signing. In the Potential Ability section the player is compared to other players in the league and it considers how good he can turn out to be. Again the final piece of a scout report is the scout’s recommendation which as you can see is a definite purchase.

Another point to note before finishing this section is that if you look in the top left corner of the report you will see your scouts name, this gives you the option to view previous scout reports to see how different scouts rate the same player, again a very useful tool. The scout reports don’t necessarily mean any player will be good, it is just comparing the player to your own team and giving you the information in a understandable form, the player in question still needs to be player in the right position and in the right system to be effective.

I don't think silver stars show a players PA. I think silver stars are used to show how a player's current ability compares with the players in your youth team for a particular position.

[jimbobBRFC]

I don't think silver stars show a players PA. I think silver stars are used to show how a player's current ability compares with the players in your youth team for a particular position.

If you read the next bit it says that all stars are relative to your team thought that cleared things up

[MattSpurs94]

Very nice thread, I will definitely be using some methods from here.

[mikcheck]

jimbobBRFC i have a player with all the mental stats required to play in my first team. He looks really good, but there is a downside, he only has 9 at Determination. The scouts say that he would be great for my team. My team is pretty determined. Would you still buy it? He has all i need: passing, technique, first touch, off the ball, composure, decisions, creativity, flair,antecipation and teamwork.

[TheBigBoss]

when you scouts should have very JPA etc what stat do you classify as very good?

[The Welsh Lad]

I don't think silver stars show a players PA. I think silver stars are used to show how a player's current ability compares with the players in your youth team for a particular position.

If you read the next bit it says that all stars are relative to your team thought that cleared things up

Jimbob sirtosyne is right, The silver stars are for Youngsters CA ratings and nothing to do with PA. Senior Players (not yth contracted or under 18 (I think)) will be at least a 1/2 gold star and never have a silver star.

If you goto your assistant reports in the squad section - the seniors generally have gold starts for both CA and PA, if you look at your Reserves there should be a mixture of Silver and Gold CA stars but all Gold PA, if you look at your U18s it will show all Silver CA stars and Gold PA Stars (unless you have a excellent youth player that has Gold CA).

Whilst they are relevant to your own team, I always look at the Stars has 0 to 10 with the Silver Stars being 0 - 5 and the Gold 5.5 to 10

the line you said was

"If you now look at the chart Ruben is in Silver Stars not Gold Stars. In a similar way to which Gold Stars show a players CA in relation to your current squad silver stars show a players PA"

If you look at this players report the scout rates the player 4.5 (Silver Stars) CA and 9.5 (Gold Stars) PA (Using my take on star ratings) or 4.5 Silver star CA and 4.5 Gold Star PA.

[The Welsh Lad]

when you scouts should have very JPA etc what stat do you classify as very good?

Depending on the level of football you team is at, but 16 - 20 is the range to look for.

[Welshace]

taken from the manual... just to clear things up ...

"Players are rated in a number of areas – their ability, strengths, and weaknesses – and will receive a star rating from the coach submitting the report. A player can receive up to five stars depending on the standard expected of their team. A player who meets this standard will receive three to three and a half stars – from there it can increase to five or fall as far as one if the player exceeds standards or fails to meet them.

Some younger players may receive a silver star rating on the same scale. This will be the case where the player is not deemed comparable to more senior players and instead more fairly compares them to similarly aged players amongst a youth standard.

"

[The Welsh Lad]

A very good write up, jimbobBRFC.

I've got a few things to mention, however:

The first concerns the Strengths/Weaknesses section.

In the Strengths section you can see some hidden attributes (a few of which you've mentioned already) like Consistency, Adaptability, low Injury Proneness and Big Matches for the latter I imagine that enjoys is 15-17, relishes 18-19 and thrives in 20. The other attributes have similar messages depending on the level of the attribute, but I don't know the exact values for those.

In the Weaknesses section you can find out about Injury Proneness, Dirtiness and the previously mentioned hidden attributes when they're low, again with different messages depending on the level of the attribute.

The second thing is perhaps something you've missed/don't know about:

When setting up your scouts' assignments you can give him a roaming assginment AND a competition to scout at the same time. This means that you can scout much more efficiently, for example sending a scout to South America and at the same time having him scout the Brazilian youth league. This means you get a number of reports from a number of South American countries and at the same time lots of reports of players doing well in a reputed youth league. This basically means that you don't necessarily have to divide your scouts into Youth and First Team scouts but can have them doing two jobs at the same time (and definitely earning their wages!).

If in the Weakness section you see your scout mention a player is injury prone or a player has a tendency to break the rules (Dirtiness) this means these attributes are High not Low. Dirtiness and Injury Proneness are bed things so you need low ratings in these.

If you see a mention about his Consistency, Big Matches, Team Work, Athleticism or specific Skill ie passing, heading etc. it means the ratings are low because these are good things so you need high ratings.

If you see these in a players strengths it means thay are the opposite. A player that the scout mentions has rarely injured would mean he has a low Injury Proneness Rating.

[Romanista1994]

If in the Weakness section you see your scout mention a player is injury prone or a player has a tendency to break the rules (Dirtiness) this means these attributes are High not Low. Dirtiness and Injury Proneness are bed things so you need low ratings in these.

If you see a mention about his Consistency, Big Matches, Team Work, Athleticism or specific Skill ie passing, heading etc. it means the ratings are low because these are good things so you need high ratings.

If you see these in a players strengths it means thay are the opposite. A player that the scout mentions has rarely injured would mean he has a low Injury Proneness Rating.

Yeah, I didn't write that out very well, what you said is clearer.

[jimbobBRFC]

I'll edit the piece about the stars when I can get on my computer tomorrow to much hassle on the Tablet cheers for the heads up though, my bad

[jimbobBRFC]

taken from the manual... just to clear things up ...

"Players are rated in a number of areas – their ability, strengths, and weaknesses – and will receive a star rating from the coach submitting the report. A player can receive up to five stars depending on the standard expected of their team. A player who meets this standard will receive three to three and a half stars – from there it can increase to five or fall as far as one if the player exceeds standards or fails to meet them.

Some younger players may receive a silver star rating on the same scale. This will be the case where the player is not deemed comparable to more senior players and instead more fairly compares them to similarly aged players amongst a youth standard.

"

added something along these lines in cheers for that guys will try and get some examples up soon as, anyone got any recommendations?

Also is there anything else people would like to see added to the guide?

[Steve Odom]

I woulde add at least some in for about what to watch out for in younger players. A very low agression bravery, flair,.. can be a hindrance at their development, dependent on their position. Also the star rating of a player isn't everyrthing there is to it. A decent player with three stars can be a lot better for certain teams and positions than a 4.5 star player, if his ttributes are distributed better.

There 's also the scouting knowledge wich is crusial if you send your scouts to another nation. The bigger your knowledge, the bigger the chance your scouts will produce more reports.

[jimbobBRFC]

I woulde add at least some in for about what to watch out for in younger players. A very low agression bravery, flair,.. can be a hindrance at their development, dependent on their position. Also the star rating of a player isn't everyrthing there is to it. A decent player with three stars can be a lot better for certain teams and positions than a 4.5 star player, if his ttributes are distributed better.

There 's also the scouting knowledge wich is crusial if you send your scouts to another nation. The bigger your knowledge, the bigger the chance your scouts will produce more reports.

Cheers for the points. I intended the guide to be about the actual reports not what to look out for in the players attributes as you said. I didnt mention scouting knowledge so good point there Ill add something in

[Steve Odom]

Cheers for the points. I intended the guide to be about the actual reports not what to look out for in the players attributes as you said. I didnt mention scouting knowledge so good point there Ill add something in

It's jsut because I wrote (the beginning of) a guide in Dutch recently about scouting..

For me, there are four things a team should look for when signing players:

1) the quality of a player: the star rating and the distribution of the attributes (and the flaws of the player)

2) the compatibility of the player within the squad (does he fit the team mentally and attribute-wise)

3) the cohesion of the team (does his personality fit that of the team, will the young player get enough chances to develop,..)

4) the budget.

It seems to me those 4 points make or break a teams scouting efficiency.