A Scouts Guide to Scouting - From Hiring to Buying

[Santa Claus]

Concerning what OP said about not looking into players below "fairly good" future potential, in my Chelsea save I had a situation where one of my scouts with average attributes recommended me a 17-year old striker regen from Ireland with two and a half stars and value of around 50k. I check him with my best scout, same thing. However, I like to act like a Wenger every once in a while, so I checked his attributes and he had 12 or 13 for: Finishing, Composure and Off The Ball, 17 in Determination and 15 15 both Acc and Pace. Everything else was below ten. He looked like to me like a future world class poacher so I bought him for 35k and couple of months later my assistant gives him 4 stars potential. I was like, "damn, am I good or what?"

[tajj 7]

Concerning what OP said about not looking into players below "fairly good" future potential, in my Chelsea save I had a situation where one of my scouts with average attributes recommended me a 17-year old striker regen from Ireland with two and a half stars and value of around 50k. I check him with my best scout, same thing. However, I like to act like a Wenger every once in a while, so I checked his attributes and he had 12 or 13 for: Finishing, Composure and Off The Ball, 17 in Determination and 15 15 both Acc and Pace. Everything else was below ten. He looked like to me like a future world class poacher so I bought him for 35k and couple of months later my assistant gives him 4 stars potential. I was like, "damn, am I good or what?"

I suppose that's the thing about CA/PA, it's just a comulative total of stats weighted in certain areas depending on the player's position, so a 160 PA player can become a very good player in a particular role if he starts with the stats in the right area and you tailor his training to make the very best of his strengths. It's like when you find a regen who is say a centre mid and has 20 for crossing, he's wasting a lot of CA on a stat he doesn't need.

[ramie]

Is there a guide for fm13?

I cant seem to assign my scouts, maybe because im in preseason?

[Earnie is God!]

What an excellent thread, jimbob. Like some of the others, I'm not overly convinced about the necessity of scouting 2+ matches as the report does not tend to vary from the original report card one most of the time. It's a decent idea if you are outside of the transfer window(s) and it may give you a bit more of a thorough report but I find that sometimes your scout finds a gem and you feel you have to act quickly before he goes elsewhere or signs a new contract with his current club.

There's also the problem with a lot of youngsters who won't actually be playing any games for you to scout.

Overall, though, your ideas are great and make a lot of sense and I've already started using them in my game.

[jimbobBRFC]

What an excellent thread, jimbob. Like some of the others, I'm not overly convinced about the necessity of scouting 2+ matches as the report does not tend to vary from the original report card one most of the time. It's a decent idea if you are outside of the transfer window(s) and it may give you a bit more of a thorough report but I find that sometimes your scout finds a gem and you feel you have to act quickly before he goes elsewhere or signs a new contract with his current club.

There's also the problem with a lot of youngsters who won't actually be playing any games for you to scout.

Overall, though, your ideas are great and make a lot of sense and I've already started using them in my game.

cheers :-) yeah I know what you mean if the player in question is generating a lot of interest or a transfer window I usually go with a report card and my instincts. If I think the player is going to be a key signing for the current and long term future of the club I usually put a lot of time into the scouting

[Earnie is God!]

"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."

Indeed. I just signed a French scout called Merieux and then asked him to go and scout France. The very next day my chief scout reported back to me that Merieux's "in-depth knowledge of France has enabled him to complete his assignment early" with a list of 200 players, all of whom were at least 3.5 star recommendations! I'll sift through them and ask my chief scout to go and watch the ones I might consider buying.

In the meantime, Merieux will be off to Argentina. Apart from fantastic knowledge of France, he has zero XP of any other country so I may as well send him where I need him most. He has 13 adaptability and 14 determination so I'm hoping he can find me some quality players down there.

[Babak G]

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.

Ummm not really. This is all there is and its not what I was asking for. Is there anything out there that explains the best way to read this report, as I dont get it frankly.

What do their stars correspond to? Is it a comparison to your side or its purely in respect to the division you're in?

[Earnie is God!]

You can choose but mine's set to compare to my squad

[Tactic Master]

I've never really gone very far with scouting. The only time I ever relied on scouting was during online play as a clan, but reading this thread has inspired me to give it a real go, so I will let you know how things go