What's in a scouting report

Reports only include sections for which reliable information exists. Every statistic, honour, market figure and transfer links to its source.

Player profileCopy Anchor Link

Full name, date of birth and age, nationality, height, preferred foot, current club and league, shirt number, contract status and expiry, and a release clause when one is publicly documented.

Positions played shows the main position and other positions the way Transfermarkt lists them. When a source publishes appearances by position, they're charted; otherwise positions are shown as text.

Current performanceCopy Anchor Link

Statistics from roughly the last 12–18 months — appearances, starts, minutes, goals, assists, expected goals and assists, shots, chance creation, progressive actions and defensive work, depending on what reliable sources publish. Each figure names its competition, season and source.

Where the data exists, the report includes charts: output by season, output per 90 minutes (calculated from the sourced totals), and a percentile profile when a source publishes one. Charts are never drawn from estimated numbers.

Advanced analyticsCopy Anchor Link

Every detailed player report has an advanced analytics section, built for the player's position: a winger is measured on carrying, take-ons, chance creation and end product; a striker on chance volume and quality; a midfielder on progression, security and ball-winning; a centre-back on duels, box defending and build-up; a goalkeeper on shot-stopping, claiming and distribution. The player is always the one highlighted; other players are the comparison group, or a comparison you asked for. Charts open on a fair comparison — the player's own competition, the same or related positions, the season and a minimum-minutes threshold — shown as, for example, "Dario Venn highlighted among 47 other wingers & attacking midfielders · Premier League · 900+ min". You can widen it with the filters; when several competitions are shown together, the chart says their numbers aren't adjusted for league strength.

Where the numbers come from. Specula first works out who the player is — his club, the competition that club plays in and the current season — from a player database, and only then looks for statistics, always for his own competition. The numbers come only from statistics providers approved for commercial use in Specula's data-source policy, and the charts are built from the provider's complete player table for that competition and season: every number on them is one the provider publishes, or a per-90 rate or percentile rank calculated from the complete table. Early in a new season it compares on last season's full table and shows this season so far beside it.

Each chart stands on its own: if a metric is missing the others are still drawn, and if a radar can't be built the scatter and rank cards still are. What each chart measures depends on what the provider publishes for that competition: the charts ask for concepts — shooting, chance creation, carrying, defending, goalkeeping — and use the provider's metrics that match them, never mixing providers in one comparison.

When no chart could be drawn, the section says why: no licensed statistics provider covers the player's competition, no table covering the player was found (with what was searched), the provider couldn't be reached (worth trying again later), or statistics weren't researched for that version of the report. Specula never fills the gap with numbers from an unlicensed source or with estimates.

The charts can include:

• Scatter plots of the player against his peers on two metrics. Pick the X and Y metrics, filter by league, position, age band and minutes, or find a player. Highlighted players show their percentile among the players currently shown, and dashed lines mark the median.
• Percentile radars, with a dashed ring at the median and an optional comparison player or group.
• Rank cards for key metrics, with rank, percentile and the group average.
• Trends such as xG and xA over time, and goal contributions (goals and assists against xG + xA).

After the charts, What the analytics suggest brings them together: data observations (each linked to its source) are kept apart from the scouting interpretation of what they add up to. Rank cards say what the rank is out of ("3rd of 48 qualifying wingers") with the percentile and the peer average.

Every chart states its metric, competition, season, comparison group, minimum minutes where the source applies one, and its source. Percentiles and medians on scatter plots are calculated from the chart's own data. A chart is left out, and the reason listed under limitations, when its source wasn't actually retrieved or its numbers are incomplete. Nothing is estimated to fill a gap.

Form analysisCopy Anchor Link

What the numbers show, notable performances, and a separate scouting interpretation of consistency, role, tactical usage, chance creation, movement and involvement — including changes from earlier periods.

Match videos & highlightsCopy Anchor Link

Real YouTube videos of the player — highlights, goals, assists, skills and recent performances — shown in a carousel you can play inside the report. Every video is confirmed on YouTube and checked to be about the right player. If none can be verified, the section is left out.

Career & honoursCopy Anchor Link

Career pathway, major clubs and milestones, domestic, continental and national-team trophies, individual awards and international record.

Transfer & contractCopy Anchor Link

Current contract, transfer history and representation where reliably reported. Verified facts and reported or rumoured information are always shown separately.

Specula transfer valuation. Every player report carries two separate figures, as ranges:

• Specula Fair Value — what the player is worth as a footballer: what clubs have paid for comparable players (brought to today's money and to a neutral contract situation), adjusted for how he differs from them — age, measured performance, playing time, injuries, trajectory and international standing.
• Estimated Deal Price — what a buyer would need to offer for his club to seriously consider selling: the Fair Value times the selling club's leverage (contract length, his importance, how hard he'd be to replace, what the club has said about selling, other interested clubs), capped by a verified release clause.

Beside them: confidence, direction (rising, stable or falling), contract expiry, release clause, the club's leverage and willingness to sell, the strongest factors either way, what's uncertain or missing, the comparable transfers with why each was chosen and how its fee was structured, and the valuation date and model version. "How this was calculated" traces each input to its source and its effect. A missing input is listed and lowers confidence — it is never guessed. Other publishers' valuations (such as Transfermarkt or CIES) appear separately, attributed, for reference only; they never enter the calculation. Fan opinion is never an input. It is a Specula estimate — not an asking price or a confirmed market value.

Ask "How much would club need to pay?" after a report for a buyer-specific price: a direct domestic rival pays more; a wealthy buyer does not.

Scouting analysisCopy Anchor Link

Technical, tactical, physical and behavioural observations. Each point is labelled Evidence (directly supported by a cited source) or Scout view (interpretation drawn from the evidence). Behavioural analysis covers only observable on-pitch behaviour — never personality, health or psychological speculation.

Role & playing styleCopy Anchor Link

Preferred zones, attacking and possession patterns, transition behaviour and tactical responsibilities — split into what the player does in possession and out of possession — plus the modern roles the evidence supports, such as inside forward or advanced playmaker.

Public & fan sentimentCopy Anchor Link

How the public talks about the player on X, Reddit and fan communities. Specula runs several targeted X searches (the full name, name and club, nicknames or handles, recent matches) over a recent window and a broader one, and reads fan discussions elsewhere. The section shows:

• the overall mood, common praise, common criticism, views on recent matches and recurring themes, each marked with how many separate sources it was seen in;
• how divided opinion is, and how it changed over time when there are enough posts to say;
• representative posts across stances, with a link, author, date and context, and a short quote only when it appears word for word in the post; widely shared posts are listed separately because reach doesn't make a view typical;
• the sample: how many posts and sources, the period covered and the X searches actually run.

To gather it, Specula sweeps public discussion for every player: X, Reddit and supporter forums, with many phrasings (name and club, form, praise, criticism, fans, match threads, tactical role, transfers) and every form of the name. It starts with the last four weeks and widens to three months and then the season when there isn't enough to read, keeping the date of every post. The mood is described in words — mostly positive, mixed, divided or mostly critical — never as a percentage, and the sample line lists the platforms searched and how many searches ran. It is a sample for reading, not a poll.

Every detailed player report includes this section. When it can't be written, it says which of two very different things happened: little public discussion was found across all those searches, or the searches themselves failed — a retrieval problem, not a lack of discussion. This is public and social sentiment, not a professional evaluation. Opinions such as "world class" or "finished" are reported as opinions, never as evidence of ability, and posts found by search reflect people who post publicly, not all supporters.

Contact & socialsCopy Anchor Link

The player's official social accounts and public contact channels — only those linked from trustworthy pages such as their Transfermarkt or club profile. Representation and clearly labelled fan accounts are shown separately, and nothing is guessed.

Comparisons, strengths and limitationsCopy Anchor Link

Comparisons with other players when genuinely useful, a summary of strengths and areas to monitor, and an honest list of anything that could not be verified.

SourcesCopy Anchor Link

Every report ends with its sources: the publisher, what information was taken from it, and the date it was checked.

Team reportsCopy Anchor Link

Ask for a report on a club and Specula writes a team report: the team's profile (league, manager, position, record, most-used shape), how it plays, and its numbers. Where sources publish the data, charts include a team profile radar, style radars (build-up, chance creation, defending, pressing), key metric ranks against the league, a league style map (every team on two metrics), an xG trend, formations used, the most-used XI, how shooting attacks start, the squad age profile and goal contributions by player. Key player cards show the role, why the player matters and published percentiles. The same sourcing rules apply: every figure links to its source, and anything unsourced is left out. Team reports can be edited, exported, printed and shared like scouting reports.

There is one report per player and one per club: researching the same player or club again updates that report (as a new revision) rather than creating another.

Editing a reportCopy Anchor Link

Select Edit report (the pencil at the top of the report) to change anything in it. The editor has tabs:

• Content: title, summary, strengths, areas to monitor, form and performance notes, scouting points, playing style, roles, comparisons, public & fan sentiment (including its posts) and limitations. Lists take one point per line.
• Profile: every profile field, international record, market value, representation and contact channels.
• Tables & charts: the season table, extra metrics, percentiles, positions played, market value history, career, honours, milestones, transfers, sources and the labels of advanced analytics charts. Add, change, reorder or delete any row; the charts are drawn from these tables.
• Images & media: the player photo (paste an address or upload an image), match videos (add a YouTube link, rename, reorder or remove) and the live profile.
• Layout: show or hide each section and change their order.
• Data: the complete report as JSON, for anything the forms don't cover. Apply data checks it before you save.

Comparisons and learning modules have the same editor for their own content (notes, sections, questions and exercises). A point you rewrite is shown as your own judgement rather than cited evidence. Edits are saved to your account and appear everywhere the report is shown, including shared links. Researching the player again replaces them with the new report.

Sharing a report privatelyCopy Anchor Link

Select Share privately (the share icon at the top of the report) to create a private link. You choose:

• Access permission: View only (the default) lets them read the report; Can edit lets anyone who opens the link edit it with the same editor, and their changes are saved to your report.
• Password: viewers must enter it before anything is shown. After too many wrong tries, the link pauses for a few minutes.
• Expiry: in 24 hours, 7 or 30 days, or on a date you pick.
• Allow download and print: turn it off to remove the export and print buttons and block printing and copying on the page.

The dialog shows whether the link has been opened, how many times and when last. Your own visits aren't counted. Revoke link stops it working at once; sharing again creates a new address. Shared links are never indexed by search engines. Sharing needs a Google sign-in.