Scouting..... When? Where? How?

[howardrocket]

Hi guys, currently in my thirteenth season with Norwich, a lot of my squad are nearing the end of their career, I have over the years been bringing in younger players scouts have managed to found me, but I fear I'm doing something wrong with my scouting set-up as I just don't find/bring in that many players.

For the last twelve seasons I have had my scouts individually scouting a Region for players.... for example, I shall have one scout in 'South America' and a scout in 'Scandinavia' and a scout in 'UK & Ireland' etc etc. I also set my scouts to look for players 'no older than 17' and 'potential of at least three stars'. Now I don't know if this is the wrong way of doing things or what.... my scouts maybe find a few players a year each..... although most scouts find nothing where they are searching (which I understand.... different regions produce different/better amount of regens).

I have recently started sending my scouts out to specific nations for when that country receive their new intake of youth players..... this has ended up fruitless though, again I set the same stipulations, but instead of the region they are searching it is just the nation.... I have currently been through; Norway, Russia, Chile and Brazil.... and the scouts have actually found no players for me!

So am I doing anything wrong?
Am I using the knowledge of regen dates wrongly?

I do desperately need to get myself into a decent and efficient scouting set-up as I am quickly running out of time to start bringing in regular talent.

I should also state, training and youth facilities are all of to standard as are junior coaching and youth network as I know these can have some kind of affect on players brought in!

I also have extremely good scouts at my disposal and plenty of them!

So I am wondering what is the best and most efficient way to scout??
When should I send my scouts out?
Where should I send them too?
What should my scouts be looking for?

 

[malhar]

You're giving it too much thought in my opinion. Just send your scouts to all the major regions, and try and spread them out as much as you can. And use your best scout more often i.e. YOU! Every 3 months or so, do a thorough search of as many teams as you can..especially teams like Corinthians, Velez (important), Hajduk, Dinamo, Sao Paolo, Santos and all the European clubs...you are bound to find a gem in there somewhere. Also go through the u-19s and u21s and so on of as many of the top nations as you can and sort players by value. I can't emphasize enough how important this is, because I have acquired future World Golden Ball winners this way. So in conclusion, just continue what you are doing, I think you're using the best scouts to the best of their ability. Maybe increase the age to 21 at the very least. 17 is not giving them much leeway. And the most important, scout as often as you can, and as expansively as you can by yourself! You are the best scout, remember that! I am sure people will agree that manual searches have turned up some of their best regens, not to mention their best bargains. good luck

 

[howardrocket]

Well the only reason I use the under 17 is so that the players will then become HG players. I genuinely don't really know what Im looking for if I am searching through teams, literally just the value of a player??

 

[gogogo golem]

Determination will make your scouts find more players and scout major regions after their regen creation date and set the recquired PA to two stars as any gems in clubs with low rep and low training facilities will not have any players rated higher than two stars but when they join you it could be four and a half. Two star PA and good stats probably means future world class player.

 

[simsays]

Well, high valued youngster often do have a higher potential than those who are worth less. I have to agree with malhar, you're basically doing everything right. I use almost the exact same settings. But indeed, found my best regens myself. Just going through youth teams and search for youngsters with good stats matching their natural position.
Best way for me is, to use the search form, and apply a filter for max. age 18, and just sort players by value and go through the highest valued ones. Keep in mind that having scouts from many different regions and affiliated clubs increases your scouting knowledge, thus showing more players.
I've also created different search forms for different type of players, like centrebacks, poachers, wingers, target men, etc. All have their own important stats (tackling, marking, heading, jumping amongst others for centrebacks, finishing, pace, acceleration, etc. for poachers and so on). Not often does a regen show which has all the stats at the level I searched for (max. age 18, stats at least 15 or higher), but when I find one, it's a real gem most of the time.
Plus I usually send my scouts to tournaments, too, like U19 championships, African Cup of Nations, Copa América, etc.
Be sure to also check U19 teams of high rated countries as France, Brazil, England, Spain, Russia, Argentina, etc.
There's many ways to find decent youngsters, but sometimes you just need that little luck to stumble upon a future world class player.