Our summer subscription drive
Getting cynical, with your help
SCOUTED is eleven years old this summer.
Since we went professional as a print magazine in 2019, our small team has toiled endlessly to turn SCOUTED into a sustainable, totally independent outlet. We’re closer than we’ve ever been - but we’re still not quite there. And we’re running out of time to make this work before we have to call it quits, or scale down significantly.
So this summer, we’re putting our business hats on. We’re getting cynical. We’re asking for help. And we’re launching a subscription drive.
As I write this, we're at 678 paid subscribers.
We joke in-house a lot about the severe lack of business acumen among us. Successfully running a publication in 2025 requires 50% editorial focus, 50% business, I was once told - our problem is our split is closer to 90-10.
We think that’s also what makes us unique. We just want to write good, interesting stories we think readers will love. But it’s time to face the music: the finances won’t just take care of themselves.
Reaching 1000 subscribers by the end of August - our eleventh birthday - would change the outlook of this publication forever. It’s an enormous, stupidly ambitious goal, but such are the heights we must reach to be confident of survival.
Please join us, if you can. This summer, you can get 20% off an annual subscription - there's never been a better time to jump on board and help us stay afloat.
But if you need convincing, read on.
"This is seriously my favourite sports website on the internet."
— Anonymous SCOUTED Reader
Subscribe nowWhy should I subscribe?
SCOUTED is a totally independent publication dedicated to introducing its readers to the future of football. Since 2014 we’ve been on the cutting edge of analysis, scouting and recruitment.
Our readership consists of decision makers at the world’s biggest clubs, federations, and recruitment teams. In 2024 our co-founder was headhunted by one of Europe’s leading clubs to work as a first-team scout. We work with bespoke, rare data from partners like SkillCorner. We’ve been recognised and lauded by writers and journalists from around the editorial world.
"I'd subscribe in a heartbeat. The quality of analysis is better than anything else football-related I've ever read."
— Anonymous SCOUTED Reader
Subscribe nowBut aside from all those accolades, we’re just three friends who believe in independent data journalism and great storytelling. We want to create a magazine people really, genuinely care about - just like the old days. And we’d like to do it without engaging in the clickbait, algorithm-ridden, hypebeast nonsense today’s media environment has become. We want to create a great reading experience free of ads and corporate influence.
Most importantly, we want to write for people, not machines. People who still enjoy sitting down with a coffee, disengaging from the internet maelstrom, and digging deep into an idea, story or perspective. People who want to engage with writers who sit for hours to run narratives through their heads before putting them to paper, who engage in deep and meaningful original research - not those who throw a question into generative AI and call it a day.
That’s why we’ve chosen the reader-funded model, even if it’s much harder than the alternative. It allows us to put the time and care into each story we believe great reading requires. It allows us to write for you.
"Fantastic quality of journalism produced by people passionate about the game. I wish there were more publications at this standard."
— Anonymous SCOUTED Reader
Subscribe nowWho am I subscribing to, exactly?
SCOUTED is a creative collective of six once-young, now-somewhat-grizzled football writers who own the website equally. We have no outside investors or corporate backing and started without any funding whatsoever.
The starting IV:
Tom Curren / Editor-in-chief
Tom is the founder of SCOUTED. He is a writer and editor living in London and interested in bridging the gap between analysis and narrative. He spends most of his time correcting Llew’s weird typos.
Llew Davies / Scouting Editor
Llew is a writer and scout with a history of spotting and breaking down top talent. He’s also our Design Lead. Joe dubbed him the ‘Michael Burry of scouting’ and it stuck. He’s most famous for his ‘non-temporal’ writing style, which means he leaves many sentences unfini
Jake Entwistle / Data Editor
Jake joined SCOUTED in 2024 after eight years of leading Squawka’s social efforts. He is the maestro behind Monday Night SCOUTED, our popular newsletter that drops - you guessed it - every Monday. He loves spotting stats nobody else does and scouring the globe for the next big thing.
And, for this summer only, we’ve added a fourth name. You might recognise it.
Ashwin Raman / Staff Writer
At fifteen years of age, Ashwin was working as a scout and analyst for Dundee United. This summer, he’s going deep on players from across Europe exclusively for SCOUTED. He’s a boy genius (my words) and has the sleeping pattern of an Indian grandfather (his words).
The bench:
Joe Donnohue / Senior Writer
Joe is a journalist with the Yorkshire Evening Post and covers Leeds United professionally. He moonlights as the smooth voice of SCOUTED’s podcast and frequently digs out hot stories and features as our man on the ground. And what a man he is.
Phil Costa / Senior Writer
Phil is a professional podcaster with FootballVision, ArsenalVision and Arseblog. He was once a Commercial Editor with OneFootball, and has a background in football journalism. He’s always looking for SCOUTED’s next big scoop.
Stephen Ganavas / Occasionally still hijacks meetings sometimes
Stephen is a SCOUTED co-founder and served as Analysis Editor for nine years. Today, he's at an unspecified European location, taking notes on an unspecified player, for an unspecified top-level club.
"My favourite football platform by far. The quality of the writing, the look and feel are amazing."
— Anonymous SCOUTED Reader
Subscribe nowWhat will I get?
During the regular season you'll receive three jam-packed, full-length newsletters every single week to sit down with and enjoy. Quality, not quantity.
Newsletters
On Mondays, we publish MONDAY NIGHT SCOUTED, Jake's data-driven narrative breakdown of a story he spotted in the weekend's stats. MNS will return with the new season.
Jake Entwistle
Jake Entwistle
Jake Entwistle
On Wednesdays, you'll get SCOUT NOTES, Llew's detailed breakdown of a top-level talent he thinks deserves the spotlight - so you can stay ahead of the game.
Llew Davies
Llew Davies
Llew Davies
On Fridays, we publish THE SHORTLIST, which is already free - you'll be helping it stay that way. This is our roundup of everything the next generation; a summary of all the news we're interested in, and the players we're watching at HQ.
Tom Curren
Jake Entwistle
Tom Curren
And for this summer only, on Thursdays, Staff Writer Ashwin Raman is authoring an exclusive column with us: bouncing around Europe to cover the superstars of tomorrow, break down myths, and introduce exciting new ideas from his colossal brain.
Ashwin Raman
Ashwin Raman
Ashwin Raman
Archetypes
Jake's pet project and our way of recalibrating the terminology we use to understand football players, SCOUTED Archetypes help clubs - and you - map the game's future.
Each Archetype is built using detailed and bespoke datasets from our partners - and explained in perfect clarity, so you can spot your own Gamebreaker, Safecracker or Developer out in the wild.
Jake Entwistle
Jake Entwistle
Llew Davies
...so much more
From Emergency Broadcasts to youth tournament coverage to deep-dive analysis to long-form, epic narrative journalism, to whatever the hell's knocking around inside Llew's weird head on any given Sunday - SCOUTED has the next generation pretty well mapped.
We think it's a great deal.
If you've read all this way, thank you so much for your interest in SCOUTED. We desperately want to make this little magazine work, and think it deserves to.
Every penny you spend with us goes right back into ensuring we can keep the lights on and pay our writers, analysts and artists, both in-house and freelance, the rates they deserve.
If you can't support us financially but like what we do, please please share this page as far and wide as you possibly can. Finding us a new subscriber is just as good as signing up yourself. Discovery has always been our issue, and word of mouth is still the king.
If you're already subscribed, please consider upgrading your subscription to a higher tier, if you can. It really helps, and the more of our readers are willing to pay a little more, the more free subscriptions we can give to those less fortunate.
Power the future of SCOUTED
Upgrade your subscription nowThank you so much for your time. Enjoy our Cynical Summer - we hope to see you at its end, triumphant.
Yours,
Tom, Llew, Jake, Joe, Phil, Steve & Ash
