Are scouts required in lower leagues?

[Brasilia88]

As the title mentions, do we need these people in the lower leagues?

I'm having a hard time deciding whether or not to hire some, because they only drain money and I can do the job easily myself. 

One might argue that it might be gamey, but the AI uses the same tools, so why not?!

I've seen people throwing team reports all over, but does that really help? 

Note: I'm the new manager of York in the Vanarama National League (FM22). Also getting a senior affiliate seems impossible at times. 

[toiletfootball]

From my experience, no. Scouts you can hire are poor at this level. Either filter yourself players or if you play with attribute masking offer trials. I imagine you already knew this.  Although, it's what you enjoy. Just using scouts can be fun. My board keeps refusing an affiliate too (I'm stll on FM23).

[phnompenhandy]

It depends how realistic you want to play it. If you want to be "gamey" and use player search, then that does the job of scouts. But players who like 'realism' don't use player search and don't 'know' players scouts don't bring to their attention.

There are many many ways to play this game, and as a one-player game, whichever way you choose is right for you.

[Dreambuilder]

In Vanarama South I got to hire all 4 scouts contractless without any salary to my surprise. With Hampton & Richmond. They do find some good recommendations 4-5 star players for me.

[Etebaer]

I dont know the situation in the english lower legues albeit i hire Scouts for as little money as possible which is for my german lower league save between 400€ and 800€ p.a. (34€ to 67€ weekly).

They have obviously low attributes (between 3 and 5) but are no cost factor and still add a little but you have search for them and they disappear quit soon after you start a new save as they are sought after.

Some increse a little in thier attributes by 1 or 2 points in scouting ability or potential.

Then there are the Football Directors above age 50 who have attributes about 9 to 14 in everything scouting and agree to work for as little as 1500€ p.a. (if you set the sucess boni high enough - these boni are only paid once if ever and you can in later contract end negotiations minimize them or delete them at all).

And if you use the scouting software i dont know what is wrong with that as you play the game exactly as it is meant to play and in this very small or low league clubs there is often no staff for that and other staff does scouting as additional task ( secondary job).

I allways start with my managers, assistants, coaches having secondary jobs.

Only physios (if unable to be sport scientist) and Scouts have specialized roles at my club.

Also per secondary job you can get access to roles that you club has no budget for like you have no sport scientist but a physio can do it additionaly.

Also recruitment and performance analyst can either be hired via making them scouts (and they are even cheaper than scouts with 300€ p.a.) or you can have additional scouts by making your analysts doint it as secondary job.

Ofc high attribute scouts do the job faster and better but for that cheap even low attribute scouts do help!

Edited January 2 by Etebaer

[Dreambuilder]

On 02/01/2024 at 12:03, Etebaer said:

I dont know the situation in the english lower legues albeit i hire Scouts for as little money as possible which is for my german lower league save between 400€ and 800€ p.a. (34€ to 67€ weekly).

They have obviously low attributes (between 3 and 5) but are no cost factor and still add a little but you have search for them and they disappear quit soon after you start a new save as they are sought after.

Some increse a little in thier attributes by 1 or 2 points in scouting ability or potential.

Then there are the Football Directors above age 50 who have attributes about 9 to 14 in everything scouting and agree to work for as little as 1500€ p.a. (if you set the sucess boni high enough - these boni are only paid once if ever and you can in later contract end negotiations minimize them or delete them at all).

And if you use the scouting software i dont know what is wrong with that as you play the game exactly as it is meant to play and in this very small or low league clubs there is often no staff for that and other staff does scouting as additional task ( secondary job).

I allways start with my managers, assistants, coaches having secondary jobs.

Only physios (if unable to be sport scientist) and Scouts have specialized roles at my club.

Also per secondary job you can get access to roles that you club has no budget for like you have no sport scientist but a physio can do it additionaly.

Also recruitment and performance analyst can either be hired via making them scouts (and they are even cheaper than scouts with 300€ p.a.) or you can have additional scouts by making your analysts doint it as secondary job.

Ofc high attribute scouts do the job faster and better but for that cheap even low attribute scouts do help!

How do you assign secondary jobs?

[Etebaer]

Via contract negotiations - you need to do that when hiring or negotiating a contract extension.

You offer a normal primary job contract until the other side agrees but still needs a few days to see if better offers come by - it will not work when they agree immediately.

After exiting the talks you go into the negotiation again and add the secondary job and in 90% they will agree (as long they do not see that as downgrading the offer or are adamant against a certain role).

You can most times even shift primary and secondary job in that way.

If they disagree they still are willing to honor the intialy agreed upon offer but do not click to fast as it seems the game engine lags a little.

Usualy staff that is looking for a u19 job is the cheapest and most willing but there are others that are cheap and willing too but so hard to find - offer all new hirings allways a u19 job if possible when they are willing to accept one and change the job later after they agreed on the contract - that will keep them on the less expensive side as the agreed upon wage is the base for future negotiations (most of the time) even they no longer accept a u19 job.

 

Hope it works for you!

Edited January 4 by Etebaer

[phd_angel]

Good question. I always have scouts on cheap contracts but am not sure they make a huge difference in such lower leagues.

More impactful is the package you choose. The total number of searchable players increases dramatically with broader packages…

Edited January 10 by phd_angel

[johnloch]

While doing LLMs I would prefer hiring a slightly better HoF. He/she can instantly suggest signing/loanees for each position per request.

[Etebaer]

vor 11 Stunden schrieb phd_angel:

Good question. I always have scouts on cheap contracts but am not sure they make a huge difference in such lower leagues.

More impactful is the package you choose. The total number of searchable players increases dramatically with broader packages…

I use that too but only in the transfer windows for 1 month - problem with that is it becomes way to expensive to keep it going and you will lose all data of it over time if you switch it off.

Scouts seem to keep their knowledge better as long they are with you and are way cheaper than a package.

So the package is a temporary thing in the lower leagues and scouts are permanently increasing their knowledge over time - so make the best of both of it!

[phd_angel]

12 hours ago, Etebaer said:

I use that too but only in the transfer windows for 1 month - problem with that is it becomes way to expensive to keep it going and you will lose all data of it over time if you switch it off.

Scouts seem to keep their knowledge better as long they are with you and are way cheaper than a package.

So the package is a temporary thing in the lower leagues and scouts are permanently increasing their knowledge over time - so make the best of both of it!

Yes, I forgot to add that. Higher packages are so expensive that I can only use it for a month or two as well. Thanks.