My Scouting Report (Update)

Generally speaking, when I write a blog that can be viewed as, in any way, predictive, I will do a follow up so readers can check my work.  It is my current plan to admit mistakes when I make them.  If I make too many mistakes, I will probably start to blame them on someone else.  This is a follow up on the scouting report I put up a few days ago.

My list of right attacking midfielders included:

Alessio Cerci:  Signed by Athletico Madrid
Andros Townsend:  We were interested but did not sign him.
Patrick Herrman:  No sign of any transfer activity.
Alexandre Lacazette:  Newcastle tried to sign him, but he wants to stay at Lyon.
Luciano Narsingh:  No sign of transfer activity.  Called up to Dutch squad for first time.
Emilio Nsue:  Had already transferred to Middlesbrough.  Should not have been on my list.
Maximilian Beister:  No sign of any transfer activity.
Henri Saivet:  Alleged interest from Stoke and Arsenal, but nothing happened.
Callum McManaman:  Wigan allegedly rejected a Celtic bid.
Nathan Redmond:  We had some interest.
Lass Bangoura: Supposedly Newcastle was interested.
Ryan Mendes da Graca:  No sign of any transfer activity.
Alvaro Vadillo:  Had suffered a six plus month injury.  Should not have been on my list.

The glaring name missing from my list is, of course, Sadio Mane.  (FM 2014 rates him as a CA 136 PA 158.)  He did not show up on my list for two reasons.  First, he did not have an EU passport.  In the future, I will not screen for that and will, instead, assume that any player we want is probably good enough to get a Work Permit.  Second, FM viewed him as a left winger, not a right winger.  In the future, I will not limit my searches for wingers to a single side of the field.   I will continue to limit fullback searches by left and right side—at least until that causes me to make a mistake.

Of course, if Mane ends up playing primarily on the left, my mistake would not be in the search itself, but in thinking that we were looking for a right winger.  In any case, I will not redo this search now with the new parameters because it would take a lot of my time for no purpose.

My list of defenders included:

Gary Medel:  Had already been signed by Internazional.  Should not have been on my list.
Micah Richards:  Loaned to Fiorentina.
Robert Huth:  No sign of transfer activity.
Toby Alderweireld:  We signed him.
Mikael Lustig:  No sign of transfer activity.
Serge Aurier:  Had already signed with PSG.  Should not have been on my list.
Sergio Sanchez:  No sign of transfer activity.
Santiago Vergini:  Loaned to Sunderland.

Overall, I think that my system did a fairly good job of identifying potential transfer targets who might actually be available.  I will probably try again in December—if I am still blogging.
The lessons I learned from this project are to use slightly more expansive screens in FM and to check more than one web site for prior transfer activity during the current transfer window.