Discover how to boost your Football Manager scouting network. Tips on scouts, setup, and expanding searches for hidden talents.
Mastering Scouting in FM: Scouts, Setting Up Scouting, and Expanding Your Football Manager Network
As you delve deeper into your Football Manager career, your Scouting Network becomes a pivotal part of your club's growth and evolution. Of course, bigger clubs are likely to have better scouts - therefore, a more comprehensive network – and they’ll certainly have more resources to spend on scouting. However, this guide will hopefully give you information on making the most of what you have, no matter where you are in the pyramid.
Narrowing Things Down
As you probably know, clicking on the Scouting tab brings up all the players known to your scouting department. Selecting the ‘transfer’ box at the top of this list is your first step; as it eliminates all the players whose reputation is much greater than the club. It also removes players who have no interest in playing for your club due to a variety of other reasons: recent transfer, new contract, it would be a backward step, or just simply have no interest in playing for your club or in your league. This stops you from wasting time on unrealistic transfers; there’s no point scouting Kylian Mbappe for Raith Rovers.
Obviously, from here you can search this list for potential signings depending on what you need. Searching by position, nationality, league, age or by specific attributes? Go nuts. But what if the players known to your scouting department aren’t sufficient? What if they’re too expensive, or not to the standard you need? How do we go about expanding the pool of players you’re searching through?
In Football Manager, expanding your scouting horizons depends significantly on your budget. You can adjust your player package to include more – or fewer if you’re trying to cut your costs – players who may be willing to sign for you.
Obviously, from here you can search this list for potential signings depending on what you need. Searching by position, nationality, league, age or by specific attributes? Go nuts. But what if the players known to your scouting department aren’t sufficient? What if they’re too expensive, or not to the standard you need? How do we go about expanding the pool of players you’re searching through?
Expanding your horizons
In Football Manager, expanding your scouting horizons depends significantly on your budget. You can adjust your player package to include more – or fewer if you’re trying to cut your costs – players who may be willing to sign for you.
World obviously includes players based anywhere in the world, but this can be a pricey option. For clubs in the lower leagues, you may just be stuck with the surrounding divisions, or no package if you’re far enough down the pyramid. I would advise splurging for at least all players based in your nation. This is a necessary expense, and more than pays for itself in the long run. I would always recommend sacrificing some of your transfer budget to pay to increase your scouting range; the wider you can cast your net, the more likely you are to catch a shark.
Once you’ve defined your scouting range in Football Manager, finding the right staff becomes your next crucial step. The first thing to look at is obviously attributes; judging player ability and judging player potential. You want both of these to be as high as possible. Adaptability is also essential if you’re planning to send your scouts abroad, or if you’re based in a country they have no knowledge of. Adaptability is the measure of how well your scouts can adjust to a new style of play and new surroundings, so if you have a scout with no knowledge of a country being sent there – or employed there – you need him to be able to adapt to their new environment to provide you with good recommendations.
Speaking of knowledge, this is a dealbreaker for me when hiring scouts. If the scout has all the attributes I’m looking for, but his knowledge is only of one country that I already have covered, then I’m not interested in him. In order to get as much knowledge of as many players as possible, I need scouts who understand different countries, not seven scouts who only understand England.
Finding the Right Scouts
Once you’ve defined your scouting range in Football Manager, finding the right staff becomes your next crucial step. The first thing to look at is obviously attributes; judging player ability and judging player potential. You want both of these to be as high as possible. Adaptability is also essential if you’re planning to send your scouts abroad, or if you’re based in a country they have no knowledge of. Adaptability is the measure of how well your scouts can adjust to a new style of play and new surroundings, so if you have a scout with no knowledge of a country being sent there – or employed there – you need him to be able to adapt to their new environment to provide you with good recommendations.
Speaking of knowledge, this is a dealbreaker for me when hiring scouts. If the scout has all the attributes I’m looking for, but his knowledge is only of one country that I already have covered, then I’m not interested in him. In order to get as much knowledge of as many players as possible, I need scouts who understand different countries, not seven scouts who only understand England.
For example, Ruedi Zbinden is one of my favourite scouts in the game. His attributes are all where I need them to be, and his knowledge of South America covers not just the high-reputation countries like Brazil and Argentina, but smaller countries such as Ecuador and Chile, where I can expect him to locate lesser-known gems to fill out my squad.
READ ALSO: Best Backroom Staff for Your Club
So, you’ve got the personnel, you’ve set up your range, and you’ve got a wide variety of knowledge from all over the world. What now? You need to get your scouts to work.
Assignments
So, you’ve got the personnel, you’ve set up your range, and you’ve got a wide variety of knowledge from all over the world. What now? You need to get your scouts to work.
Using all the information we spoke about, I send my scouts off on their recruitment focuses. I usually set my parameters for the players, and then send my scouts off to a number of countries where they have knowledge, then reap the rewards. You’ll see from the image above that my scouts are currently spread out all over the world, bringing me reports from the parts of the world where they feel most comfortable.
Final Thoughts
Mastering scouting in Football Manager is akin to navigating a complex, ever-changing landscape of talent and opportunity. However, once you’ve got the talent you need, with the breadth of knowledge you’re looking for, combining all these factors into scouting assignments will put your staff in the best position to succeed.
