Let’s get you back to scouting.

A Mac with an Apple Silicon chip and a Football Manager 27 save from a supported build. ChiefScout reads the save on your computer. The app itself needs no account (a free website account is needed only to download it), and Football Manager does not need to be running. Player search currently excludes players ChiefScout can confirm as women’s-football players (see Which players does ChiefScout show?). Apple Silicon Macs only. ChiefScout declares macOS 12.0 as its minimum deployment target. It has been verified on macOS 27.2; older macOS versions have not yet been independently verified.

Open the downloaded ChiefScout disk image, drag ChiefScout into Applications and open it. ChiefScout is signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarised by Apple, so on the macOS version we tested (27.2) it opened normally, with no extra steps and no security warnings. The Mac download is available from the Download page once a release is published.

1. Choose your Football Manager 27 save.
2. Browse the Players table, or start from a Scouting Desk preset.
3. Open a profile to assess a player.
4. Create a recruitment need and attach candidates, or add players straight to a shortlist.
5. Export the shortlist back into Football Manager.

The first time you open ChiefScout it starts a local service on your Mac, looks for your Football Manager 27 save in the default location, and builds its player database on your Mac. Your save is read, never changed.

Support is stated for exact database and build pairs, not for Football Manager generally. Supported saves are database 27.0.0 with game 27.0.0 build 2493426 or game 27.0.1 build 2503222. All other combinations are not currently supported, and ChiefScout stops rather than risk showing incorrect information. Values that cannot be established show as Unknown. The live list is on Compatibility.

Use Choose save… in ChiefScout to open a standard macOS file picker and pick your .fm save. ChiefScout reads it, never writes to it, and builds its own database on your Mac.

ChiefScout shows an imported snapshot of your save, not a live view. After you save again in Football Manager, use Refresh in ChiefScout to read the new state. Your shortlists stay with ChiefScout when you refresh or switch saves, and a player who is missing from the newer save is marked unavailable rather than lost.

Presets start a new search for a common scouting job: Hidden Gems, Bargain Radar and Wonderkid Radar. A How scores work explainer in the app describes what each preset scores. Presets are a starting point: change the filters and columns to suit you.

Set the filters and columns you want and choose Save search to keep it. Saved searches are listed beside the Players table with the number of players that match, so you can return to them in one click. Manage saved searches lets you tidy the list. You can also look at free agents and contracts expiring in 3, 6 or 12 months.

A recruitment need records why you are looking: a replacement or successor for a named player, cover in a position, or a more open recruitment idea. It has a purpose, a position, a priority, a timing and notes, and its own search criteria such as age, wage and attribute minimums. Choose Discover players to open the Players table with those criteria applied.

Connected Scout is ChiefScout’s recruitment workspace: each need, its criteria and the candidates you attach to it, kept together between sessions. The Recruitment workspace shows every need with its candidates and current matches. Profiles you open from a need show it as context, not as a recommendation.

From a player’s profile, choose Add to recruitment need or Create recruitment need. Candidates appear on the need with their club and their number of squad connections, and each has Open profile and Remove. If a candidate is missing from a later import they are kept and marked unavailable. You can then move candidates onto a shortlist.

Shortlists are named lists of players that live inside ChiefScout. Create new lists, add players from a profile or from a recruitment need, rename or delete them, and see which players are available in the current save and which are not.

Yes, on supported builds: database 27.0.0 with game 27.0.0 build 2493426 or game 27.0.1 build 2503222. Choose Export to FM27 on a shortlist. Your original save is not written to. Players already in your current squad may not appear after importing the shortlist into Football Manager. When we tested, the exported file itself was correct and Football Manager did not add players who were already in the squad. Football Manager excluding current-squad players is the likely cause, but that is inferred, not confirmed.

Meta combines attributes historically associated with player success into a fast headline view, scored out of 20. Technically it is the unweighted average of ten selected attributes. Sort the Players table by Meta to see which players’ all-round game stands out, then judge them for the role and system you actually need. It is ChiefScout’s own measure, not an official Football Manager rating, and it does not replace CA, PA or your own judgement. It makes no promise about how a player will perform.

Estimated Max PA shows what a player’s attributes could look like if they fulfil their potential. Open a player’s Attributes tab and switch on Estimated at max PA to see each attribute move from its current value to an estimated value. It is built from statistical modelling of how attributes grew across six saves of one FM27 career, so treat it as a guide to long-term fit, not a forecast.

It is available for players aged 15 to 30 (26 to 30 only when PA is within 10 of CA), using each player’s primary position. Estimated attributes never go down and never exceed Football Manager’s maximum. It is not Football Manager data.

Squad Fit shows the connections the save records between a player and your current squad: favourite and disliked people and the reason, such as Friend or Teammate, how strong the relationship is where the save records it, current-squad connections and shared nationalities. Squad Fit is context from what the save records, not a prediction of how a player will settle. It does not score chemistry, predict how a player will adapt or settle, or infer relationships the save does not record. Staff relationships, languages and adaptability are not covered.

Unknown is not zero. It means ChiefScout cannot establish the value from your save, for example because the information is build-specific or not recorded. It does not mean the value is zero, false or unavailable to you in Football Manager.

Traits are read from the save on verified builds. Coverage is partial, and ChiefScout does not model Football Manager’s scouting visibility, so Football Manager may hide traits that ChiefScout shows. Data imported before trait support shows traits as unavailable until the save is read again.

Player search excludes players ChiefScout can confirm as women’s-football players, using their Football Manager database club. Everyone else it can identify, including unclassified players and free agents, is included. ChiefScout does not currently offer women’s-football scouting. The in-app About the data page describes the current rule.

This version does not check for updates by itself. New versions are announced on this website and installed the same way: replace ChiefScout in Applications with the new version. ChiefScout keeps your settings, shortlists and recruitment data in its own folder on your Mac, so they are kept when you replace the app. What changed in each version is recorded on What’s New.

No. ChiefScout opens your save read-only and processes it on your Mac. The desktop app does not need an account. See Security & Privacy.

Reading the website needs no account. If you do sign in, the site stores your email address, display name and anything you post, and uses a session cookie while you are signed in. There are no advertising or analytics cookies and no third-party scripts or fonts. The full detail, including how to ask for your data to be corrected or removed, is in the Privacy Notice.

See Contact and support for how to reach us. For a bug, say what you did, what you expected, what happened and your ChiefScout, macOS and Football Manager versions. Please do not send your save file. Security concerns go to the security route, not a public post.