About the new-improved scouting system of Football Manager 2008. What was changed since the last Football Manager version? How the new stars system work? How to improve your club scouting knowledge and what should you consider while creating a massive scouts network? Read on to discover the answers.

Ronaldo, Jefferson Farfan, Kaka, Javier Saviola and now Alexander Pato. You're all familiar with the first four, and six months from now you all will also know the latter. What is their similarity? The answer is, they were all discovered by highly rated scouts that were sent to South America to discover the next big star. Scouting plays major part of club' success and the big clubs are already know that, this is why you watch on the newspapers or television from time to time about Liverpool signing a 14 year old Finnish talent, or about Arsenal's Mexican kid getting loads of goals in Spanish lower-side. Even Chelsea know that; "Mr Abramovich is fed up that he has to keep paying millions and millions for big star players. He had to pay an absolute fortune to get players like Didier Drogba and Michael Essien. This is why he has asked me as a private scout to look out for top class young players who will be the Chelsea stars in three years time." Words of wisdom from Chelsea's Dutch scout, Piet de Visser.

Professional clubs have their own scouting system, assembled by former footballers and retired managers that attend pre-scheduled football matches most of their time. However, you and I have our very personal scouting network; It is the biggest, most extensive network on the planet and it's totally free-cost. This is the Football Manager database, created by dozens of hard-working personnel from all over the world. Its quality can be rather questionable, but it won't be very surprising to hear actual football-staff studying it and maybe even attending real-matches because of it. This is major part of what differs our beloved FM to then-rubbish now-better CM.

The scouting system of our Football Manager was experiencing few minor changes through the transition from 07' to 08. First and foremost, individual scout reports can be deleted. There are two ways to delete them: (1) In the player screen, there would be an option of "remove scout reports", click on it and poof! (2) You can do so more conveniently and massively by 'selecting all' combination (CTRL+A), right clicking on the selected players list and then clicking the above-mentioned option. Secondly, once the scout will finish a given assignment there will be a news notice about it where you can see his top list and get quick access to his reports. Thirdly, on the scout reports headlines there would be one-two words summaries and stars icons to help those of you who just flick on quickly on reports without too much of attention. In addition, the star system has changes and from now on the stars will indicate how good a player considering the club standard (that is the average standard of first team/key players).

You can send your scouts in three different methods;

(1) Individually. You've navigated to a very interesting youngster profile screen and you want to know more about him, or more importantly to see his attributes. Click on 'Get Scout Report' and you'll receive your staff list with scouts on top and other backroom staff at the bottom, if you hover any personnel you'll receive four different scouting options a) Report Card; b) View 1 Match c) View 2 Matches d) View 3 Matches.

(2) Group assignments. In your 'squad' screen tree, there is 'scouting', which has two options: 'knowledge' and 'assignments'. If you click on assignments you'll receive a screen with the list of your staff (with the exception of physiotherapists), when marking a scout the option of 'Add New Assignment' at the bottom will be available. When clicking on that option a new screen will pop up, at the top right near 'Assign To…' there would be a drop down menu with all your scouting options (Next Opposition, Competitions, Nations and Regions) and beneath it you can specify conditions such as Age, Position and Value that your scout must follow.

(3) Very similar to the second method, while being on a scout screen there is an option of viewing his 'scout assignments' at the tree-menu, click on it and you'll see all his current tasks, and at the bottom you can add him new ones.

Scouts like any backroom staff and playing-personnel in the game (with the exception of very few like chairman, fans spokesman etc.) have sets of coaching and mental attributes. The most important attributes for a scout, as your probably have guessed already, are the mental attributes of judging player ability and judging player potential. There would be absolutely no difference in the tactical reports of scouts with high tactical knowledge attribute and low one, which is a bit of shame in terms of game-realism.

As already been mentioned, there are two main screens concerning scouting in this game;
Assignments
On the left top-side of the screen there is a list of your backroom staff, with the exception of physiotherapists. You can mark each one of them by clicking on the tiny-triangular next to a certain personnel name; Once marked, the right top screen will show you that individual knowledge nation-wise with the best-known countries at the top and the least-known countries at the bottom. On the bottom screen you can see the marked-personnel current and future assignments, their status (in progress, pending, on going and scouting x/y matches), the assignment start date, resume date, duration (in days) and how many reports they managed to compile so far. You can see reports of assignment in progress by marking it, and then clicking on 'Reports' at the bottom. Alternatively, if the reports don't satisfy you, you can restart finished assignment by clicking on 'Restart'. At last, if you want to abort current assignment you can click on 'Remove'.

Knowledge
In this screen you get to see your club scouting knowledge regionally and nationally. At the top of the screen you can see your world knowledge, this will always be at the top. Then, the regions will be sorted from best-known region to least-known region with different types of knowledge description including: Outstanding, Exceptional, Extensive, Very Good, Good, Average, Decent, Sporadic, Little and more. At the bottom area, you can see your knowledge by nations, a graphic row such as in the top area that basically gives you the idea of how well your club is familiar with this nation, and right next to it - the source. The source can be you, the manager, your staff - from assistant managers, coaches to obviously scouts, and feeder/parent clubs. Each individual knowledge is based many factors such as his nationality, pre-coded knowledge, his favourite team, the nations that involve within it and with the club, acquired knowledge etc.

The benefits of having greater scouting knowledge come to expression with having much extensive list in your 'player search' function, and you'll be able to watch more players attributes without having to scout them.
You can expand your club scouting knowledge in many ways: (1) Signing a playing or non-playing staff from a nationality which isn't available in your knowledge screen. (2) Sending your scouts to unlisted countries or less familiar ones. (3) Getting a feeder/parent club (this will give you its scouting knowledge).

There are few external options that you should keep in mind before you assign your scouts to different locations. The first thing is your database; Your database (small, medium, large) size will determine how many players will be available in your game, which means that sending your English scouts to a region such as The Caribbean won't be very beneficial. The database size will also determine your clubs scouting options, meaning on small database you'll be able to scout very few nations with high reputation and with large database more extensive list of nations will be available. The second thing you have to consider is the leagues and competitions you've loaded; The more nations you load, the more nations you'll be able to scout and your scouting of foreign countries will more effective. Competitions you've loaded will be available for scouting as well, through the 'Competitions' option.

The second part that takes you into the the new-improved scouting system of Football Manager 2008. What are the different scouts reports structure and what information you can learn from them? How to use scouts to your own advantage on daily basis? How do you sign scouts? Read on the second part to discover the answers, it's also featuring special hints and tips for more advanced users.

Your scouts are integral part of the team future squad and pre-game strategy, making their reports as much as important as any other aspect of the game. They're producing, respectively, two different types of reports: Player's Report (scout report card, 1/2/3 matches attended) and Tactical Report (scouting next opposition).


Player's Report

Best Position - Pretty self-explanatory, the scout will tell you the player's best position and probably also his second best position. Information which can also be available through the 'Positions' screen.

Ability - The scout will treat the player ability in four different ways. (1) The player will be compared to whom the scout believe to be the club's best player in that position. (2) The player will be compared to the league standard (decent, good, leading etc.) (3) The scout will rate him as the 2nd/3rd/4th best position at the club. (4) The player will be compared to the youngest potential player that plays in his position.

Potential - The scout will treat the player's potential in two different ways. (1) He will give you indication of how good the player will be by comparing his potential to your current best player that plays at the same position. (2) The player's potential will be compared to the league standard (again, decent, good, leading etc.)

Character - The scout will give you information regarding the player's character (determined, ambitious, professional etc.), moreover he will give you also indication of how well he will fit in your squad personality-wise.

Strengths - The scout will give you information about the player's strengths, based on the player's visible attributes (speed, set-pieces, athleticism etc.) and hidden ones (big matches player, versatile etc.)

Weaknesses - The scout will give you information regarding the player's weak spots, if any. This usually similar to the strengths information, with the exception of injury proneness that can be listed only here.

Transfer - The information here is sub-divided into four noticeable areas: (1) Indicates how much the player want to be signed by your club. (2) What is the player's current status at his club, and what offer may need to be offered to get his signature. (3) How much wage the player would like to receive per week/month/year. (4) How much time it will take to approach the player with a pre-contract, meaning signing him out of contract.

Recommendation
This will tell you the scout recommendation of the player, from worthwhile, last resort, decent, good, quality, excellent and for whatever price.

There are two different types of stars, silver and gold. I quote from the game itself: "Senior players are given gold stars whilst younger players will get silver stars and are compared to similar players at their own age group".

Tactical Report

The tactical report of scout is usually structured as following:

- Indication of the team's usual formation (most likely to be the opponent's manager preferred formation)
- The game-style the team likes to play (possession, sitting back and counter and so on) and then passing style they combine with it (usually, the manager preferred passing style).
- Warning of a treat or indicating of potential weaknesses. For example: suggesting on using quick defenders or defending deep because of pacey attackers, or pointing out that if the defenders will push up there would be room to for quicker players to take advantage of.
- Note about the pitch, short, long, narrow, wide etc. Also, recommendation of what can be done to avoid its defect or what causes it will have.
- Key player. Pointing out an opponent player as a threat and allowing you to comment on him ('Comment on Dangerman')

Amongst the options of scouting a certain player you can find four different types - getting a report card only, and scouting the player for one, two or three matches.

If you have a scout with good knowledge regarding the player's nationality, or the based country he's playing in, it will be time-saving to give him instruction of 'report card only'. If you don't have such as scout, you'll have to scout the player for at least one match to discover his all attributes and receiving reliable information concerning his ability and potential. The higher your scouts attributes are, the less time it will take them to compile a detailed report about a certain player.

WARNING. MINI-CHEAT:
You're at the top of the table, few points behind your opponents that plays a mediocre club in few days. If the mediocre club has a determined key-player, it's worth scouting him and then attending the match of his team against his opponents. At the beginning of match you'll see on the commentary: "Manager X has been seen on the stands today". The determined player would like to prove himself, against your opponents. You can have the other effect about your opponents players that can't handle pressure very well. Nice eh?

Signing scouts isn't very complicated with the addition of the 'Job Centre'. Simply place an advert for scouts and when the new item will come, pick up the ones with the highest mentioned attributes. Make sure you pay notice to the compensation sum, because it will go off right from your transfer budget.

Other way, condemned by LLM managers, is to use the 'Staff Search' function and filter for unemployed scouts with relatively high attributes. Sorting them out by 'View', 'Mental Attributes' and then clicking on the top of the column, is also an option.

To summarize, I was very impressed with the scouting system changes in FM 08'. They might be minor and ridiculously pointless once FM Genie is out and you all could tell how good a player is by a number, but I believe they add nice touch of realism and playability to the game. The benefits of a good scouting system can easily be replaced by having a good eye for players, and knowing which attributes indicate of good player and potential. Yet, it can save you a lot of time and effort, and with more exotic types of games (unknown countries, continents, lower-leagues) it is priceless, literally, it saves you money.

My Rating: Ability - 5 Stars, Potential - 7 Stars.

I've compiled here few hints, tips, and things that I basically didn't know before writing this article. I believe it's the closets thing for shortened hints for advanced users, and I hope you'd like the idea as I'm going to use it with every piece I write.

- Scouts with very high 'Judging Player Ability & Potential' attributes don't need to attend three matches of a player to give you the most detailed information about him. One is enough.

- Bear in mind that the price the scout recommended on is not written in stone, and most likely to be wrong. Make sure you bid for players considering the entire picture, factors such as club reputation, financial position, player's role at the club, etc.

- When scouting a player that is wanted by other club, you will enter the 'Interested Teams' list. By removing him from your shortlist you'll get to scout the player without being interested on him and potentially forcing other clubs to battle for his signature.

- Make sure that when scouting a player for certain a mount of matches, there are also fixtures for his team to attend to.

- If you're playing in low-league level and have no available scouts even after placing adverts, it's worth sending other backroom staff for special scouting of potential individuals. Make sure you don't use them as scouts too often or the chairman will moan about lack of realism.

- Back in previous versions of the game, when a scout was sent to next opposition match, he was also compiling reports of your opponent players. Nostalgic.

- Scouts with low tactical knowledge attribute will compile exactly the same tactical report on your opposition as scouts with high attribute.

- Sending scouts to regions which have very few or none at all real players is rather pointless, whereas improving your scouting at your own area progressively can be beneficial.

- Kit Carson never existed.