Scout52 vs a scouting spreadsheet

Most scouts start with a spreadsheet. A row per player, a column for ratings, a few notes. For a while it is exactly the right tool. This is an honest look at when a football scouting spreadsheet is enough, when it starts to break, and how it compares with Scout52.

When a spreadsheet is enough

If you are one scout watching a handful of players, a spreadsheet is fine. You know what every column means because you made them. You spell club names the same way because you are the only one typing them. There is nothing to merge, nobody to share with and no dashboard to keep up to date.

If that is you, keep it. A spreadsheet costs nothing extra, does whatever you build it to do and opens almost anywhere. The free Scout52 plan is there if you want to try reporting from the touchline on your phone instead of typing up later, but there is no shame in a well-kept sheet.

When it starts to break

The cracks rarely show on day one. They show when the sheet grows, or when someone else starts using it.

• A second scout starts adding rows. Now there are two ways of spelling every club, two rating habits and, before long, two versions of the file.
• You cannot see everything on one player. Reports on the same player sit in different rows, tabs or files. “How many times have we watched him?” means counting by hand.
• You need to know your coverage. Which clubs on your priority list have not been watched? Who has seen whom, and when? A spreadsheet can answer that, but only after someone builds and maintains the filters.
• The template changes. You add a column or change a rating scale, and last season’s rows no longer line up with this season’s.
• It goes to the game. A spreadsheet on a phone at a touchline in the rain is hard work, so reports get written up later from memory.
• It gets emailed. Copies multiply, and young players’ details end up in inboxes and on laptops.
• Someone leaves. Their file, and what they knew, goes with them.

Side by side

Editing submitted reports, priority clubs, Player Management and your own dropdown lists are on the Scout plan and above.

Notice the last row. A spreadsheet will always be more flexible, and for a one-off piece of analysis it is still a fine place to work. What it does not do is keep several scouts’ reports consistent, joined up to one player and visible the moment they are filed.

If you are sticking with a spreadsheet

Plenty of scouts will, and that is fine. These five habits make a scouting database template in Excel or Google Sheets last much longer:

1. One row per report, not one row per player. It keeps every viewing, and you can still filter down to one player.
2. Give every player an ID column. It is the only reliable way to join reports up when names are spelt differently.
3. Use dropdowns. Data validation lists for clubs, age groups, positions and ratings stop most of the spelling drift.
4. Fix your rating scale and write it down. Say what a 3 means, and do not change the scale mid-season.
5. Keep one master file. Share access to it rather than emailing copies, especially with young players’ details in it.

For what goes inside each report, see how to write a football scouting report.

If you are running a department

At club level the spreadsheet is rarely on its own. It usually sits between an online form and a Power BI dashboard, with someone cleaning the data every week in the middle. We have written that set-up up in full in From Microsoft Forms and Excel to one scouting system. If the form and dashboard are what you are weighing up, see Scout52 vs Microsoft Forms and Power BI.

Moving out of a spreadsheet

Start on the free plan and file your next few reports in Scout52. Keep the old spreadsheet as an archive to refer back to rather than trying to move every old row across. When you want editing, priority clubs and Player Management, try Scout free for 7 days. For a whole department, email info@scout52.com about a club set-up.