How does everyone set their scouting team up?

[ryandormer]

Not sure if this is the right place, but I wanted to start a discussion on how people are doing their scouting.

Do you leave it to the chief scout to assign?

Do you set up assignments yourself?

Do you assign scouts to regions, or individual nations?

Trying to get some inspiration for my own set up.

[DarJ]

I set them myself. 

I send one scout to each continent to look for players 19 at most with 4 star potential; then I might set one to just look for players that are running out of contract. I might also scout youth competitions depending on the number of scouts I have

[ryandormer]

Just now, DarJ said:

I set them myself. 

I send one scout to each continent to look for players 19 at most with 4 star potential; then I might set one to just look for players that are running out of contract. I might also scout youth competitions depending on the number of scouts I have

How effective do you find continental scouting to be? I imagine the scout can only do one country at a time, so isn't spending too long in any one place

[DarJ]

3 minutes ago, ryandormer said:

How effective do you find continental scouting to be? I imagine the scout can only do one country at a time, so isn't spending too long in any one place

It's been successful for me and I usually set it to ongoing so I don't have to worry about it anymore. I normally takes longer than If I sent them to a specific country but it also difficult to find players with the parameters I set during like the first 2 seasons.

So I got this goalkeeper when he was 17 and i paid only 13K for him; he's 30 in the screenshot

This one I paid 5M for at 18 and his stats look like this at 25 

 

 

[Justified]

I've scouted exactly the same way for like, which it seems, forever  First I need to make sure I have the right personnel. 

Chief: Gloried scout (High JPA and JPP) with an added sprinkle of Man Management. If I can, he'll be from the nation I'm managing in or have a high knowledge of it as he'll be my domestic scout.

Tactics Scout: Will be assigned to watch the next opposition. Will have high values for JPA + JPP + Tactical Knowledge. Helps if he knowledge of the country but it'll increase anyways over time.

Scouts: Ah my little minions.  High values for JPA + JPP and if they don't have knowledge of the region they're going to then high Adaptability helps.

When it comes to scouting assignments the max age I look for is 27. Any older would only be an exception if I'm at a club which has no leaders and I'm desperate for one with a good personality which I can use for tutoring. However normally you can find them on the player search screen anyways so need to include them in the scouting assignments. The only other requirements I have is that Potential is at least Good and the assignments last for a year.

After that I start spreading them across the earth. I always have a list which I go by deciding on where to send them.

Chief Scout - Nation I'm managing in.

Tactics Scout - Next Opposition

Scouts - Depending on how many I have I send them in this order: South America, Central Europe, UK & Ireland, Eastern Europe (I only send them to Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia + Ukraine), North America, North Africa, South Europe, Scandinavia, Western Africa (Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria only), East Asia (Japan + South Korea only), Middle East, Central Africa (Cameroon, DR Congo Only), Southern Africa (South Africa Only), Southeast Asia (Australia only), South Asia (India Only)

As you see I cover pretty much the globe but am selective in certain region's as I find the odds of finding good newgens in other countries not listed, very small. Also the regions where I only scout particular countries you can get away with scouts with lower adaptability as they'll be spending more time in that country then other scouts who cover larger areas. If I have more scouts then the regions listed then I can start splitting the duties among them to get better coverage, scout competitions, larger countries etc etc.

Hope this helps  

[ryandormer]

@DarJ @Justified great suggestions, thanks, I was planning on assigning scouts to individual nations instead. Might amend that to regions instead.

How do you specify only certain nations within a region?

[Justified]

1 minute ago, ryandormer said:

@DarJ @Justified great suggestions, thanks, I was planning on assigning scouts to individual nations instead. Might amend that to regions instead.

How do you specify only certain nations within a region?

I just select them from Nations. You can set multiple countries when you select nations 

Edited November 26, 2020 by Justified

[DarJ]

got to scouting>assignments>create assignment then the drop down menu at the right

[ryandormer]

Ah I see--I hadn't even thought that you could assign more than one nation/region. Thanks guys

[isignedupfornorealreason]

I find it best to set them up myself.

I go for nation specific scouting, ongoing assignments, only restriction is to stop suggesting players aged 27+ (since they will be 28 by the time I bid and sign them).

 

The reason I go for no restrictions is because I don't want talent that the Scout (or AI) identifies as poor, when they're actually not far off from world class. I'd rather their 'crap' players still land on my desk, so I can slap them for underrating them. - I think this is an important thing to do if you're not a big club as you can poach some genuine stars if you sift through the paperwork yourself.

Nation specific scouting allows me to build the network from the bottom up. For small clubs, I stick with scouting local nations - the home nation and the neighbours for example. But the bigger the scouting budget, the further I expand.

For a decent team in England, I will go like this:

1. Next Opposition and Chief scout, who will float around and scout my transfer targets.

2. England (duh)

3. France

4. Germany

5. Italy

6. Spain

7. Portugal

8. Russia (if I'm in the mood to deal with the nationality restrictions).

You can switch it up to suit, but my main aim is to get scouts in the major European nations and the top leagues. Only once I have those set up do I start going for smaller reputation leagues, like Holland, Belgium and so, and it is a long way down the list before I get to bother with Scotland etc. If I can spare one, I will send a scout to Brazil or Argentina, but the priority is Europe because the EU is a wonderful thing, and freedom of movement gets you all the sexy stars.

Of course, with FM21 having the hardest of hard Brexits, I think my FM21 scouting network would be heavily focused on the home nations and just the top leagues - no point going for the middle/lower reputation leagues based on how the new work permit system looks to be like. But for EU member states (Spain, Italy, Germany, France, etc) I'd stick to my EU-centric method I think, because it's a huge market really.

[ryandormer]

10 hours ago, isignedupfornorealreason said:

I find it best to set them up myself.

I go for nation specific scouting, ongoing assignments, only restriction is to stop suggesting players aged 27+ (since they will be 28 by the time I bid and sign them).

 

The reason I go for no restrictions is because I don't want talent that the Scout (or AI) identifies as poor, when they're actually not far off from world class. I'd rather their 'crap' players still land on my desk, so I can slap them for underrating them. - I think this is an important thing to do if you're not a big club as you can poach some genuine stars if you sift through the paperwork yourself.

Nation specific scouting allows me to build the network from the bottom up. For small clubs, I stick with scouting local nations - the home nation and the neighbours for example. But the bigger the scouting budget, the further I expand.

For a decent team in England, I will go like this:

1. Next Opposition and Chief scout, who will float around and scout my transfer targets.

2. England (duh)

3. France

4. Germany

5. Italy

6. Spain

7. Portugal

8. Russia (if I'm in the mood to deal with the nationality restrictions).

You can switch it up to suit, but my main aim is to get scouts in the major European nations and the top leagues. Only once I have those set up do I start going for smaller reputation leagues, like Holland, Belgium and so, and it is a long way down the list before I get to bother with Scotland etc. If I can spare one, I will send a scout to Brazil or Argentina, but the priority is Europe because the EU is a wonderful thing, and freedom of movement gets you all the sexy stars.

Of course, with FM21 having the hardest of hard Brexits, I think my FM21 scouting network would be heavily focused on the home nations and just the top leagues - no point going for the middle/lower reputation leagues based on how the new work permit system looks to be like. But for EU member states (Spain, Italy, Germany, France, etc) I'd stick to my EU-centric method I think, because it's a huge market really.

Makes a lot of sense! I've just had a re-shuffle of the scouting team, so each scout if looking at at least two nations. In theory, that should mean six month of the year per nation, which seems like enough, and it means I can cover a large part of Europe in particular.

How are you finding continental recruitment after Brexit in the game?

[Louisking1992]

Give this a read, 

 

https://fmcatenaccio495007826.wordpress.com/2018/10/27/scouting-the-oceans/

 

[zlatanera]

I’ve started setting them myself. I think I set the PA limit too high as I don’t get many recommendations, but I’m mostly manually scouting for newgens and have a maximum 26 scouts so this is my setup on FM19:

1. DoF (20JPA/JPP) and Chief Scout (also - specific to Roma - Director/Scout Bruno Conti) are free to produce final judgements. 

2. My best scout with low Adaptability scouts my nation (Italy).

3. My best scouts (high Adaptability, Determination, JPA, JPP) scout nations with active leagues (i.e. Bundesliga is active, therefore players are available in lower divisions too, so scout Germany rather than the league).

4. Important regions (all European, South America East and West separately, certain parts of Africa) get high Adaptability scouts that ideally have some relevant knowledge (John Calvert-Toulmin knows S. America so gets the more prestigious “East” assignment, Omar Sciolla knows Ghana so gets the region containing it).

5. Remaining unassigned scouts cover multiple less important regions (I.e. Caribbean + Central America, or Oceania +Southeast Asia + South Asia).

This is gradually building an extensive breadth of knowledge. If I need a defensive midfielder for my youth team I can usually filter by setting 6-8 attributes to 10 minimum value then I’ll usually turn up some top prospects. 
I also extensively abuse the trial system, but my scouting knowledge means even from obscure nations they usually arrive with 50-80% knowledge. This means the worst prospects can be dismissed immediately and I never need more than 2 weeks to get 100% on a player. 

[FedAt]

can anyone explain certain scouting process - when i start scouting a player, after a week I receive a report with some knowledge of that player (20-30%), but then scouting stops, in menu of this player it says that scouting in progress, but knowledge doesn't increase further, and such players stays in scouting assignments for weeks. Another scenario if player scouting progress is "On hold", so can anyone help with this?

[Artin]

age 15-28

and scout only these:

england
spain
italy
germany
france
portugal
brazil
argentina
champion's leage
europa league
netherlands
turkey
russia
ukraine
belgium

any other i feel is a waste. if a player is good, he'll be in one of those nations or competitions.

Edited November 29, 2020 by Artin

[Zemahh]

1 hour ago, FedAt said:

can anyone explain certain scouting process - when i start scouting a player, after a week I receive a report with some knowledge of that player (20-30%), but then scouting stops, in menu of this player it says that scouting in progress, but knowledge doesn't increase further, and such players stays in scouting assignments for weeks. Another scenario if player scouting progress is "On hold", so can anyone help with this?

If you request a Scout Report, it typically takes a week to complete (unless changed in Staff Responsibilities, but a week is minimum). Scout Reports used to be instant in older FMs, but that's no longer the case (if that's what's confusing you).

"On Hold" means the scouting hasn't yet started, because the assigned Scout isn't free. Each Scout can only handle so many assignments at one time (depends on their ability), so the rest are placed on hold (Scout Priorities screen).

[FedAt]

@Zemahh, the funny thing is that i have five scouts without assignments, so this is pretty confusing, because i can't reaaly understand how much more time i have to wait for player to be fully scouted

[Zemahh]

1 minute ago, FedAt said:

@Zemahh, the funny thing is that i have five scouts without assignments, so this is pretty confusing, because i can't reaaly understand how much more time i have to wait for player to be fully scouted

General Assignments have nothing to do with requested Scout Reports, those can still get clogged up.

You can check Assignments -> Scout Priorities screen to see a list of all the players currently being scouted and time until completion. You can also reorder them manually, if there's certain players you want to prioritize.

[FedAt]

yeah, i'm also talking about that screen, for example in this situation it's hard to understand how long to wait for full knowledge, or at least to find any indication of how progress goes, unless you checking from time to time and spot the difference

[zlatanera]

@FedAt It depends on a variety of factors such as: how good your scout is (Determination sees him try harder to get the job done, Adaptability helps if he's in a foreign nation, JPA/JPP are the accuracy of the report), how many assignments they have and if they're in geographically close locations (one of the hints in the game used to say something along the lines of "they'll spend all their time on a plane, rather than at games"), if the player is actually playing games (if they're a regular player in an active league you'll get much quicker results than an inactive league, at a club with no continental football, on a Backup contract). 

I now make sure when scouting a recommended player that I will have the right guy doing it - don't want my man assigned to South America (East) following some Chinese kid around for free months because he was him when Brazil hosted them for a friendly, for example. Instead I'd task that responsibility to my scout covering East Asia (China's region). Or if I want to scout multiple players from the same club, I'll select them and use right-click to send the same scout to watch all of them.

[FedAt]

@zlatanera thanks for response and detailed explanation) for me the main issue was the lack of explanation in assignments screen (scout priotities), because at first in "progress remaining" column it displays a week (and than counting) but after a week there is no realy any info about what happened next

[zlatanera]

1 hour ago, FedAt said:

@zlatanera thanks for response and detailed explanation) for me the main issue was the lack of explanation in assignments screen (scout priotities), because at first in "progress remaining" column it displays a week (and than counting) but after a week there is no realy any info about what happened next

I agree, it could be better. Perhaps raise it as a bug or in the suggestions form? Because I can't imagine its a big priority for them to improve (which I think is ok, ME etc. is much more important).

[seizer]

I hate the new scouting knowledge screen .

Previously you can see list of country in a region.

Now you cant, you just need to have good geographical knowledge and memory to assign a scout to a particular country with low knowledge in a region.