Recruitment

Hello guys, i'm new to the community and quite new to the game. I've been testing different save with differents results, but one thing that i have a lot of difficulties with is my recruitment.

First, to scout for players. I usually go to the player list, look for attributes linked to a famous player, lower the attributes and then go through the list to try to find somebody that would fit in my budget and in my team. I often first ask my scout to scout him, so that i have an evaluation of his level and potential (are thoses stars, something to look at ?) But i then face two difficulties :

When i'm playing a lower league club, basicly nobody wants to join and the only people i manage to sign are well under the level of my current players. 

When i'm playing a big club, usually the player i want to recruit ask for astronomical salaries and often when you try to reduce them, their second request is 3 times higher than what they've first asked for. Is is a knonw bug ? Is it normal ? Should i just accept their request without trying to negociate it?

Well, if somebody could explain their process for recruiting, that would be awesome.

One additional question regarding the scout you have in the club, do you send them on missions? Or do you only ask them to scout the player you've first selected ?

[Dar J]

Scouts and your assistant manager are not reliable although I use them a lot but I also judge the players myself. When it comes to player recruitment you just need to know the level of your club, you can start by using the interested filter but you would loose on some players that would have been willing to come to you.

When it comes to wages with big clubs I use the players I already have as a guide or I look at another team at my same level to see how much a player with similar quality is earning then I offer him what I think he should be earning based on if he would be a backup or first team player.

For lower league clubs just focus on the key attributes for example if I was looking for a DC for FC United I'd focus on Pace and positioning, those are not key attributes for that role but that is what I feel I need the most at that level of football.

Talking about the best time to buy player I've found that it's better to do it outside the transfer window because you won't attract the attention of other clubs. Also keep an eye on players that are transfer listed because they generally cost less then their value and finally players running out of contract, the best time to start looking for this players is during December and the last month of the season, bare in mind that for players in the UK you can sign them a month before the end of their contract and you would pay compensation for players under 21. In other parts of the world it's 6 months so remember to renew the contracts of your own players as you search for this free transfers