How To: Set up a Scouting Network and Improve Knowledge

Setting up a Scouting Network

There are a number of features on this game that I feel many people over look, personally I find setting up a scouting team essential. There are a number of ways to do this that really depend on the team you are; if you wish to sign predominantly home grown players, or if you want to sign the best of the best from around the world.

Stats that you should look out for stats are mainly Judging Player Potential and Judging Player Ability. I think it’s also important to have high stats in the other mental stats such as adaptability and determination.

Firstly, if you were aiming to pick up the best of your nation then I’d have around 6/7 scouts for your nation, and set them up as:

Scout One – Assign To: Your Nation – Criteria to filter: Age is at most 16
Scout Two – Assign To: Your Nation – Criteria to filter: Age is at most 18
Scout Three – Assign To: Your Nation – Criteria to filter: Age is at most 21
Scout Four – Assign To: Your Region – Criteria to filter: Age is at most 18
Scout Five – Assign To: Your Region – Criteria to filter: Age is at most 21
Scout Six – Assign To: Competition / Your Nation / Under 18s – Criteria to filter: none
Scout Seven – Assign To: Similar Region – Criteria to filter: Nationality is your nationality

If, for example, you were managing in England then that would be the nation, and the region would be the UK. Competition would be England/Under 18s. For scout 7, a ‘similar region’ could be central Europe which would cover the likes of Italy, Spain, France and Germany. Selecting nationality as English you’re going to be picking up any English players coming through the youth system of other clubs outside your country.

Depending on which team you are managing, you may be allowed more or less than 6 or 7 scouts, so you’d have a bit of freedom to chop and change where you see fit.

Secondly, if you were just settling up a rather large net to find any talent coming through around the world, similar to Arsenal if you will, then the approach could be similar to:

Scout One – Assign To: Your Nation [England] – Criteria to filter: Age is at most 21
Scout Two – Assign To: Your Region [UK] – Criteria to filter: Age is at most 21
Scout Three – Assign To: Similar Region [Central Europe] – Criteria to filter: Age is at most 21
Scout Four – Assign To: Other Region [South America] – Criteria to filter: Age is at most 21
Scout Five – Assign To: Other Region [Eastern Europe] – Criteria to filter: Age is at most 21
Scout Six – Assign To: Other Region [Oceania] – Criteria to filter: Age is at most 21
Scout Seven – Assign To: Other Region [North Africa] – Criteria to filter: Age is at most 21

Again, depending on how many scouts you’re allowed you can add or remove certain regions. You could also double up on certain regions that you may deem to be more important, such as Central Europe and South America, with ages as 18 and 21.

Improving Scouting Knowledge

Scouting knowledge doesn’t just come from your scouting team though, far from it. Any staff members at the club, such as coaches, also improve your scouting knowledge. Obviously scouts are going to be the main source of knowledge, but it’s quite naive to think they are the only source. The one benefit scouts have over any other staff members is that they can increase their knowledge through scouting regions and countries they may not have any prior knowledge of.

Any affiliated clubs also give you a huge amount of knowledge too. For example, on my AS Roma game, Dinamo Kiev are one of my affiliated clubs. From this, the manager – Valery Gazzaev gives me 100% knowledge in Ukraine and Russia. This is shown on the scouting knowledge screen, and the “Source” shows how you are getting this information, either a person or a club. Not only is it their manager, but their coaches also give me a huge amount of knowledge in places such as Moldova, Kazakhstan etc. The club itself also gives knowledge, in this case it’s China PR.

Another case of improving your knowledge if through your coach’s favourite personnel. For example, Paul McGuinness of Man Utd receives knowledge from Sir Alex Ferguson when he moves to another club. This is shown on the source column as Paul McGuiness (Ferguson). You also get people such as Sven Goran Eriksson sharing their knowledge of Sweden through Luciano Spinosi.

All in all there are huge amounts of ways to a) set up a scouting network, and b) improve the scouting knowledge that I believe many people overlook. It’s a key part of the game once you get a few years in and you’re looking to pick up regens. At the start we all know the best youngsters such as Jonjo Shelvey, Simone David, Sergio Canales etc, but keeping a sustainable amount of youth in your team gets harder and harder as the game progresses, especially if you have a poor youth set up at your club.

Recommended Scouts

Name – JPA – JPP – Fee – Wages – Main Knowledge Areas
Oliver Bierhoff – 19 – 18 – free – £1,800 p/w – Germany and Italy
Andrea Pastorello – 18 – 20 – free – £1,300 p/w – Italy, Argentina, Spain and England
Paolo Berrettini – 17 – 20 – free – £650 p/w – Italy, Argentina, Spain and England
Txema Noriega – 18 – 19 – free – £1,100 p/w – Spain, Argentina, Brazil and England
Ed van Stijn – 17 – 18 – free – £900 p/w – Holland, Belgium and England
Vlada Stosic – 15 – 15 – free – £1,300 p/w – Serbia, Spain, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia
Dimitar Penev – 20 – 20 – free – £8,500 p/w – Bulgaria
David Hamilton – 20 – 20 – £22,000 – £700 p/w – England
Hans-Martin Kleitsch – 20 – 20 – £140,000 – £3,400 p/w – Germany
Jimmy Hampson – 20 – 20 – £400,000 – £4,900 p/w – England
Ernesto Varnier – 20 – 20 – £825,000 – £3,300 p/w – Italy, Argentina, Spain and England

Obviously a number of these will not drop down outside of the elite group of clubs, but when the majority are free then it’s worth a try!