#FM17 | Celtic | A Squad Building Exercise | Part IV

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A huge part of how successful this turns out will be down to the scouting team and how I utilise them. This is due to my reluctance to use the basic player search function, except for bosman deals and to see who is transfer listed.

I play to expand the scouting department in phases.

  1. Scotland, rUK and Ireland along with a Chief Scout being sent out on specific assignments.
  2. Scandinavia and Central Europe
  3. Eastern and Southern Europe
  4. The Americas and the Caribbean
  5. Africa/Asia/Oz

Each phase will be scouted slightly different form the last, I will go into this as I manage to recruit for these areas. As a general rule assignments will tend to last for 3 months.

Phase 1

  • Chief Scout will be sent out roaming in order to find a player with a specific skill-set ready for the first team. This will wait until I have a budget available as I want the best possible candidate.
  • Development league and the UEFA Youth League scout; John McGlynn will be my man on the ground at both the u20s and the UYL, he will also e tasked with scouting next opposition.
  • A scout looking for the most promising players in England; Michael Murphy will be on the hunt for the next Moussa Dembele to slip through the net down south.
  • Someone looking for first team ready players in rUK and Ireland; David Moss is tasked with finding me first team ready players in the UK, focusing mainly on the Championship and Premiership.

The remaining phases will be carried out as and when scouts are identified but summary posts will follow. Another way of increasing global scope that I will be looking into is through affiliation. We already have informal partnerships in Ireland, NI and Mexico. I expanded this by requesting a club with successful youth development.

http://i.imgur.com/HQ3ynOk.png

I had a few options from England, Romania and Spain but the Germans seemed like the best option. I plan on using them the way Chelsea use Vittese to blood in players.

  • 2 Bundesliga is playable so players send on loan will get opportunity to play
  • The standard of the league is probably better than SPFL
  • They have some talented youngsters in their side
  • We get a foothold in German football

Tactics seem to be working out well, the one tweak I have made though is dropping back to a DM and two CM. I have now just found out after all these years that starting formation represents your defensive shape.

http://i.imgur.com/hsNy4mt.png

And other news…

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I added to our rather depleted backroom team with a host of additions, filling up most of the first team roles. More will come in over the course of the season, but for now I am happy. Mick Halsall comes in as Chief Scout and looks a steal at only £40k from Notts County, he has already been tasked with finding us a new CM. Phase 1 complete.

http://i.imgur.com/Sxz34qM.png

I made a few more tweaks; instructing the CB and CF to play a shorter passing game. Slight increase in pass completion but sample to small to tell. Breezed through to the CL groups securing at least £15m in prize and TV money. Changed too many players in the Aberdeen game as the team was tired due to fixture congestion.

First Rangers game finished 9-0, yes 9-0. It couldn’t have went any better, we dominated the match containing them in their own half. We had 14 SoT and managed 6 CCC to their ZERO.

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