Hey there,
I cba to dig through forums for existing analysis but I can give you one based on 6 seasons of my data I collected in Slovakia 3 divisions, where 3rd has only 2 populated leagues, so we're talking 7 leagues over 6 seasons.
Let's start with defining what's "trainable prospect"
For me that is 4-5 skill balls and 5 pot balls.
Now to spending on scouting points. Let's say you use most common 10k/week
Over season thats 140k and 42points.
Now to analysing your league and pick. First take a look at your economy tab, where you can see how much is being spent on draft on avg in your league.
I'd say if, your pick is over 9, don't spend on scouting. You'll see why below. If your pick is less than 5th in order, I'd give it a shot. And if you're 6-9 pick and your league is not spending more than 7-8k on avg I'd give it a shot.
Now to averages. From my data on avg there are 5-6 5 pot ball in draft pool in each league. Off of which about 40% are 10 potential and 60% are 9 potential. 11 is pure luck, SVK didn't have one in 6 seasons.
Also 1 of these high potentials will have only 3 skill ball, which isn't too good to train if it's only mvp.
With that being said, I'll come back to previous paragraph, with about 5 prospects with 4-5 skill balls and 5 pot balls being 5th pick gives you good odds of picking one of them, even if your league spends on drafting like crazy.
Now let's say you will be high in pick order and you decide to spend your points. We start on 42. Most efficient is to do 10 points to scout 1 and 2 ball players. This will scout 20 players off of which, I usually got 5-7 5 skill ball players, and 6-9 4 skill ball players. These I consider worthy of interviewing. So thats 11-16 interviews which is 22-32 scout points.
In total 32-42 points spent. Maybe less, I'd probably stop interviewing if I found 2 prospects with 5 pot balls.
Now we move to TL. Early in the season you definitelh cam buy 9 pot player viable for training for less than 140k. But you usually can't buy even below avg 10 pot for less than 200k-300k. For 11 pot we're talking about 1mil price tag.
So in conclusion, if you only aim to train for yourself, it's not worth doing scouting. Simply because you can find 9 pot players which are viable for training for about same price you spend on scouting.
But, for me, I like the thrill, fun and expectation that comes with draft. Which is worth the pay.
Also you can consider 4 pot ball players, which are usually viable for most of u21 teams. Then you get good prospect for training almost every season.
Please forum gods, don't eat me for lack of data. I know it's only 6 seasons of 7 leagues, but I'm trying
Hope this helps your decision whether to spend on scouting or not
Cheers
//Meri