There are still huge issues with the scouting system at the moment, not so much with the reports, which although not perfect but still greatly improved, but with the actual process of scouting.

If I want to set a scout assignment I have a good choice of options but it doesn't go into anywhere near enough depth or realism. We should be able to specify where the scout goes (which we can do), what sort of player the scout is after (which we can do to some extent) and how long the scout goes there for. Under the current system, if I want to scout Northern Ireland my scout will pop over there for a long weekend and return having barely found any players. This, especially at top clubs is simply not acceptable. The players do exist, I can find them by going to the individual club screens but my scout just doesn't bother.

A scout assignment should given be as follows:

<UL TYPE=SQUARE> <LI> Tell the scout where to go. This I don't have any problem with, I can scout regions, nations, leagues, competitions - it is fine.
<LI> Tell the scout what sort of player I want. Right now the options are limited at best and just plain wrong at worst. I can choose whether I can only scout players who are 6'6" but not only players who are likely to want to sign for me. I can filter them out afterwards but the scout still wastes time scouting the players.
<LI> Tell the scout how long I want him there for. This is the major problem with the current system. If you scout a small nation the game automatically assumes you only want them there for a few days - if a large nation it assumes you want them there for up to half a season, it just doesn't work like that. I should be able to say to my scout to go to Northern Ireland for a year if I want to. He would then be expected to visit most teams in the database, find the best players, provide regular updates, go back and see players he rates more times etc. all obviously relating to his ability. If I send someone to Brazil for a week, you might expect him to make some phone calls, talk to some people (will be expanded below), then choose a few matches to attend and return with a report on a few players that he has seen and some you might like him to go back and watch.
<LI> You should also get a total cost of each scouting trip, along with a scouting budget. Someone going to Brazil for a year is going to be spending a lot more than someone going to Ethiopia for 2 days and although this is included, it isn't something a manager is in charge of.
<LI>Finally a head scout should be employed and the manager would have the option of allowing him to control all of this if you don't want to. The quality of scouting you get as a result of this should be down to the ability of the scout, possibly given some new attributes to determine this, otherwise just using things like ambition and domestic player bias to determine it. </UL>

I said I would expand on scouts doing things like making phone calls and talking to people. This should depend on reputation and knowledge of certain countries. A recent real life example of this is United signing Manucho, from completely out of the blue. This was a result of Queiroz's contacts recognising him and recommending him.

A scout with a worldwide reputation and knowledge of say China would be expected to be the first to hear of any new Chinese players who looked promising over there. He could then request a trip over to China to watch the player and compile a report on him. Also if he was sent on a trip with a high reputation he is more likely to find out about more players than some local part timer. Basically scouting reputation should determine the range of players he knows about and his ability should determine how good he thinks they are. A scout with an obscure rep but 20/20 attributes should still rate a player the same although the chances of him being able to hear about the good players in small countries are slim. Scouts with lower reputations may be better suited for the longer trips to gain experience whereas a higher reputation scout could be sent to somewhere like Brazil for a month and return with reports on most of the up and coming talent in the league. This makes scouting experience and reputation more important and more realistic.

Maybe your scout spots these players while he's at a game watching someone else so doesn't waste any time at all.

Maybe your scout spots these players while he's at a game watching someone else so doesn't waste any time at all. </BLOCKQUOTE>

A fair point but I rather strongly suspect this is not the case. I've sent scouts out before as a team with a very low reputation and the scouts have returned with about 5 players, all of whom would have no intention of signing for my club.

Actually where you send your scouts is not fine at all.

I had this playing in Hungarian league mainly but clearly most my players will come from Hungary or Eastern Europe or from Africa if I have enough spaces for non-eu players at the time. Problem is it will often only let you select Eastern Europe as the scouting option leading to a very long search through all sorts of places when really I want him to take a quick look through the EU nations.

The same happens if I just quickly want to find a guy in Africa, sure I will miss some guys but if I tell him to just have a nose around Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Senegal rather than all of west Africa taking him a year or so I'll probably find something I want.

Basically it should always let you chose the country you want rather than suggesting what ones to allow me to scout, no point whatsoever choosing which western European nation to scout in a situation like that but they're the options it gave me. Just a nice system where you select a region from a list and if you want from that region a new list of the countries within it to scout and it would be much quicker to get some results from him rather than wasting his time in Armenia and Niger when I need some players to look at before the transfer window is up.

Maybe your scout spots these players while he's at a game watching someone else so doesn't waste any time at all. </BLOCKQUOTE>

A fair point but I rather strongly suspect this is not the case. I've sent scouts out before as a team with a very low reputation and the scouts have returned with about 5 players, all of whom would have no intention of signing for my club. </BLOCKQUOTE>
Sorry, I thought your gripe was with your scouts wasting time scouting players who have no intention of joining not the fact that they recommend players who have no intention of joining your club.