Recruitment and Scouting

1:16 In Football Manager 27, recruitment is one of the six sections of the main navigation bar, per Sports Interactive, and its screen opens on a control panel holding staff advice, budgets, a recruitment focus, scouting range and budget, and delegation. Below that sit the players your staff recommend, the agent offers that now arrive throughout the transfer window rather than only on deadline day, and TransferRoom. What scouts tell you also changed: a scout report now says how well a target fits your tactics, which role he plays out of possession and whether his contract carries a sell-on fee. Everything here comes from SI's reveals of development builds and from the Launch Preview, which ran from Oct 29, 2026; details may change by the Nov 10, 2026 release. The clip is SI's Sep 22, 2026 interface deep dive, over development-build footage.

Quick facts

Sources: SI, navigation deep dive, Sep 25, 2026; SI, deeper world deep dive, Sep 25, 2026; SI, 2D engine and deeper world deep dive, Oct 16, 2026; FM Scout, Oct 21, 2026.

The Recruitment screen

42:48 SI's official Steam screenshot of a Brighton save shows the layout. The secondary bar under Recruitment lists Overview, Player Database, Scouting, Planner, TransferRoom, Transfers, Shortlists and Staff Recruitment, several with drop-downs. The control panel across the top carries six tiles: Advice, Transfer/Wage Budget, Recruitment Focus, Scouting Range, Scouting Budget and Responsibilities. The middle of the Overview is a table of recommended players, with age, nation, club, division, position and role, a transfer value range and a recommendation grade. Along the bottom sit tiles for Agent Offers, the Recruitment Team (Director of Football, Chief Scout, Technical Director and scouts), TransferRoom In and Out, Transfer Activity and the Transfer Window. The screenshot is a development build, so names and positions may move. The clip is WorkTheSpace's Oct 30, 2026 beginner's guide, played on FM27 before launch.

The bottom tiles are not fixed. SI's Tile Swapping lets some tiles change to another of the same size, and its example is Recruitment's Transfer Window tile, which can show affiliate clubs or transfer history instead. The wider changes to menus and tiles are on Interface and Navigation.

What is the Recruitment Focus in FM27?

44:30 A Recruitment Focus tells your scouts what kind of player to look for, and the players they find feed the recommended list. SI puts setting a recruitment focus in the Recruitment control panel, and FM Scout reports that staff give more advice while recruitment focuses are active. The Portal screenshot of the same save, in December, shows a Recruitment Focuses tile reading 7 Focuses and 269 recommended players, split into Top, Standard and Ongoing. SI has not published how many focuses a club may run or what each kind costs.

Scouting range and scouting budget

Scouting Range decides how far your scouts reach. SI's own tips say the range is set by club size and level, and governs scouting coverage, network scope and how much budget goes to scouting. It can be changed from the Player Database screen, beside the transfer and wage budgets, and SI notes this matters most in smaller leagues where money is tight. In the Brighton screenshot, the range tile reads World at £360K (£30K a month) and the scouting budget £390K for the season.

The scouting budget appears again in the board's welcome message, with the transfer and wage budgets; that message is on Staff, Board and Finances.

How do scout reports change in FM27?

1:45 Three things are new in a scout report, all from SI:

• Tactical Effectiveness. The report shows whether a target fits your setup, using the same measure as the Tactics and Training screens. How it is worked out is on Tactical Effectiveness.
• Out of Possession role. Scout reports show a player's Out of Possession role, and those roles appear in the Player Database's key attributes.
• Sell-on fee. If a player's contract carries a sell-on fee, the report shows it, and the selling club asks for more money so it does not lose out.

2:18 Scouting progress messages now list players and ratings in a list or card view, and transfer messages group every offer for one player into one message that you can act on in place, per FM Scout. The NXGN 50, a list of 50 wonderkids, arrives inside its message.

Agent offers

3:24 Agents' offers of players moved out of the deadline-day rush. SI says they are now visible and active on the Recruitment screen throughout the window and increase as it nears its end, with a redesigned presentation. In the screenshot the Agent Offers tile lists 9 offers, each with the staff's recommendation grade. How the window's last day plays out is on Transfers and Contracts.

TransferRoom

TransferRoom, the real-world platform where clubs post the players they want and the players they will let go, arrived in Football Manager 26 and stays in FM27. FM Scout reports that TransferRoom remains, now with a screen for agents. In the Brighton screenshot, TransferRoom In shows the club's requirements and responses, and TransferRoom Out the players offered to it (171 opportunities on that day).

Recommended players and the Director of Football

46:57 The recommended list is your staff's work. The Director of Football also advises on transfer fees and payment structures during negotiations, and SI says there is more transfer advice from scouting to signing. AI managers and Directors of Football at other clubs now weigh experience and leadership more when building shortlists, so the market may behave differently from Football Manager 26. The clip is SI's Oct 22, 2026 First Look Livestream, played on a pre-launch build.

Finding players quickly

48:05 SI's own first-hours guide points to the Player Database's Quick Filters, which show free agents, players near the end of their deals, and transfer- or loan-listed players, and to extra filters that find minimum-fee release clauses. Unemployed managers can use the Player Database and shortlists again. The lists built from the Launch Preview database are on Wonderkids, Free Agents and Bargain Players, and the habits that keep fees down are on How to Sign Players Cheaply.

SI's Antony Farley gave one name to FourFourTwo: Ajax's 17-year-old left winger Abdellah Ouazane, who "looks like he's going to be a very strong player this year".

What is not known

As of Nov 1, 2026, SI has not said how many recruitment focuses a club can run, what a scout costs per assignment, or whether attribute masking works differently from Football Manager 26. SI also named Recruitment as one of three areas that change in FM27 Touch, with details promised before launch; see FM27 Touch.

Frequently asked questions

How do I set a recruitment focus in FM27? In FM27, open Recruitment from the top bar and use the Recruitment Focus tile in the control panel. Your scouts then search for the kind of player you described, and their finds join the recommended players list.

What does scouting range do in FM27? In FM27, scouting range sets how far your scouting network reaches and how much of the budget goes to scouting. SI says it starts from the club's size and level and can be changed from the Player Database screen.

Is TransferRoom in FM27? Yes. TransferRoom, added in Football Manager 26, stays in FM27, and FM Scout reports it now has a screen for agents.

Do FM27 scout reports show if a player fits my tactics? Yes. FM27 scout reports show Tactical Effectiveness, which says how well a target fits your setup, and the player's Out of Possession role.

Can I see sell-on clauses in FM27? Yes. FM27 scout reports show a player's sell-on fee when his contract has one, and the selling club asks for a higher fee because of it.

Can I scout while unemployed in FM27? Yes. SI says FM27 lets an unemployed manager use the Player Database and build shortlists again.

Sources

• FM27 Deep Dive: Navigation Upgrades, Sports Interactive, Sep 25, 2026
• FM27: A Deeper, More Immersive Football World, Sports Interactive, Sep 25, 2026
• FM27: Training & Tactical Effectiveness, Sports Interactive, Oct 9, 2026
• FM27: 2D Match Engine, In-Game Editor and Deeper World Upgrades, Sports Interactive, Oct 16, 2026
• FM27 Touch launches on Apple Arcade from November 10, Sports Interactive, Oct 20, 2026
• FM27 Transfers: What's New and How It Works, FM Scout, Oct 21, 2026
• FM27 developer gives FourFourTwo his top signing tips, FourFourTwo, Oct 28, 2026
• Maximising Your First Hours on FM27, Sports Interactive (Paul Madden), Oct 29, 2026
• Football Manager 26, Steam, as of Nov 1, 2026
• Football Manager 27, Steam, screenshots as of Nov 1, 2026
• Clearer Interface & Smoother Navigation | FM27 Feature Deep Dive, Football Manager, Sep 22, 2026 (video)
• How to Play Football Manager 2027 | The Ultimate FM27 Beginner's Guide, WorkTheSpace, Oct 30, 2026 (video)
• Training and Tactical Effectiveness | FM27 Feature Deep Dive, Football Manager, Oct 9, 2026 (video)
• A Deeper Football World | FM27 Feature Deep Dive, Football Manager, Sep 25, 2026 (video)
• FM27 | First Look Livestream, Football Manager, Oct 22, 2026 (video)