FM19 - Making a Manager - 06 - Semi-Pro Player Recruitment

They exist in the game for you to use, so it is important that you use them well. It can take hours to trawl the game to find potentially good players, a job which you shouldn't have to do too often as a manager, so it is important that you hire a team of scouts and organise them to do this for you, and do it well. If you are able to generate a list of transfer targets from the players your scouts find, the wages of your scouts are surely justified, right?

What Makes A Good scout?
The two most important attributes for a scout are quite obvious; Judging Player Ability & Judging Player Potential. This is the ability of your scout to analyse a player and decipher that player's ability, particularly in comparison to your own set of players. I don't think I need to stress how important these attributes are. They should be the first you look for in a scout. You should also consider the Adaptability of a scout. This is important as they may not settle into life in a country they are not familiar with, particularly if you send them half way around the world. The World Knowledge of a scout should also be a huge consideration. It would be a good idea to put together quite a diverse team who have knowledge of players from various different countries. This would open up the pool of player knowledge for you.

What Instructions Do You Give Your Scouts?
Be very careful with what you do here. The instructions will define what your scout comes back with and a poor choice may over-restrict the list of recommendations which he/she may come back with. Know what type of player you want your scouts to find. Define their ability through the value of attribute selection, know what age group you want to scout, what the maximum price you are willing to pay is, and what kind of wages you are looking to spend. This will define the instructions you give to your scout. Things like where they scout and for how long their assignment should be will depend on each assignment.

Recommended Players
Your scouts will come back to you (as regularly as you set them) with recommendations of players they have scouted / have some knowledge of. Make sure to pay attention to these. Among these recommendations will be players, or their agents, offering their services to you. They could very well be brilliant players. I had Mohamed Salah's agent offer him to me (at the end of his contract) in FM18. Needless to say, I snapped him up faster than you can say 'pickle juice'.

Report Cards
Scouts produce report cards.The report card generated by your scout can be extremely useful, if your scouts do a good job. The report card will identify the Pros & Cons of the player, estimations of the transfer fee & wage demands, a comparison of that player's ability to the ability of players in a similar role at your club, as well as a recommendation from the scout regarding a potential transfer of that player. Be wary that bad scouts may produce bad report cards, so it mightn't be a bad idea to get a second opinion from another scout and compare the two report cards to get a good idea of a specific player, if your scouts aren't the best.