In addition to using your scouts to find players you can search for them yourself by filtering the list of players on the All Known Players tab of the Scouting screen. This list is made up of all the players within your club’s scouting knowledge.
If you have scouted a player then the recommendation star rating from his latest scout report is shown to the left of his name. You can view and filter a list of scouted players only on the Scouted tab of the Scouting screen.
You can also use shortlists to view and filter lists of specific players.
Search Conditions
The top panel allows you to add conditions to filter the list of players so that you can search for specific types of player. Some examples of what you might search for include:
- Players with a minimum current or potential ability star rating as given on their scout report.
- Players with a maximum estimated cost and wage demands within your transfer budget and wage budget (or wage structure) as given on their scout report.
Conditions related to information on scout reports is accessed by selecting Scouting from the conditions drop-down. Only scouted players will be included in the list if you use any of these conditions.
- Players with good ratings in attributes that you consider important for a particular role in your tactics and for your tactical style.
You can use the Pick button to easily include attributes in your conditions. The – and + buttons can be used to adjust attribute values and the match drop-down to adjust the minimum number of attribute conditions that must be met, allowing you to easily modify the conditions until a reasonable number of players is displayed for you to browse through. In particular, using the match drop-down to reduce the minimum number of attribute conditions that must be met can allow you to include a larger number of attribute conditions without causing potentially suitable players to be filtered out of the list.
- Players who can play in a certain position.
- Players who are unhappy at their club and so may be more open to a potential transfer.
- Players with home-grown status in order to help you to meet squad registration limits.
- Players who can speak the language of your club’s nation or any of the languages of players already at your club.
- Players with a maximum age if you wish to focus on signing young players, or a minimum age if you are looking for experienced players, perhaps for tutoring.
- Players who have a certain preferred foot if, say, you are looking for a winger who will stay wide and so will need to play on the side of his stronger foot, or an inside forward who will cut inside and so would benefit from playing on the opposite side to his stronger foot. Alternatively, you may want a two-footed attacking player who could be more dangerous and unpredictable when on the ball.
- Players who are transfer listed and therefore available at a cheaper price, or players who are listed for loan if you are looking for temporary, cheap loan transfers, perhaps from clubs in a higher division.
- Players whose contacts have expired or who are unattached, on non-contracts or on amateur contracts and so can be signed on free transfers, particularly if you manage a small club with little or no transfer budget.
- Players who are on a youth contract and so can be offered a contract immediately, unless they have already provisionally agreed a professional contract, with compensation paid to their club if you sign the player.
- Players whose contracts are expiring soon and so may be available for free on an end of contract agreement or alternatively for a cheaper price if bought before their contract expires.
You can save a particular set of search conditions for future use by selecting Save Current Filter from the Filter Options drop-down.
Quick Search
You can also use the Quick Search button to more easily search for particular types of players. This provides search templates for first team players, replacement players, backup players and hot prospects that work in a similar way to the identically named player assignment templates discussed in the Scouting Assignments guide.
Excluding Players
The below checkboxes on the Show Filters drop-down can be used to show or exclude players from the list.
Show
- Realistic transfers, realistic fee paying loans, realistic regular loans – Ticking these means that players who are not likely to be interested in a full transfer or loan transfer or whose clubs are not likely to want to sell or loan are not included in the list. However, these filters are not perfect and may prevent some potentially available and interested players from being displayed, although such players are likely to be particularly costly in terms of both their transfer fee and wage demands, so filtering them out can help you to keep your spending at a reasonable level.
Exclude
- Your own club’s players – by unticking this your own players will be included in your search. This can allow you to easily see if you already have players who fit the criteria you are searching for or whether a new player may be required.
- Players out of scouting range – ticking this ensures that players based in nations where you are not allowed to scout are not displayed. This can be useful if you want to completely ignore such players due to the risk associated with signing a player who you are not able to get a scout report on.
You must have an assistant manager employed to be able to use these checkboxes, with the exception of your own club’s players.
Shortlists
You can use a shortlist to give you a convenient list of those players who you are particularly interested in, which you can filter in the same way as described above. You can access your shortlists on the Shortlist tab of the Scouting screen, and you can create, save, load and manage multiple shortlists using the Shortlists drop-down.
Having identified a player who you are interested in you can add him to a shortlist by selecting Add to Shortlist from his Transfer drop-down. It is advisable to ensure that you have an up-to-date scout report and 100% player knowledge for such a player so that you can properly assess him and decide whether he would be a suitable addition to your squad.
On the All Known Players tab you can also add all of the players who meet your chosen conditions to a shortlist by using the Add Players to New Shortlist button.
To help you to stay informed about the players who you are interested in you can choose to automatically receive news about the players on your shortlists on the Subscriptions tab of the Inbox screen. For each shortlist you can choose which types of news you receive. This can alert you to events such as a player being transfer listed, signing a new contract or being the subject of a transfer rumour. By default you will be subscribed to all types of news for players on your original default shortlist but will not have any news subscriptions for any created shortlists.