People can give away a lot on social media. You’ll find out who’s a good lad, who’s not

One man and his squad: Fir Park boss Robinson poses proudly with his players, who have been carefully selected for the club according to a host of interesting criteria

MOTHERWELL manager Stephen Robinson has revealed his backroom staff studied the social media profiles of prospective signings to inform their summer recruitment drive.

Gauging personality types was the primary purpose of the online investigations but they also led to other outcomes. Interest in one player was ditched when it was discovered via Twitter he had previously suffered a serious injury.

The Fir Park process provides an example of how football is not immune from the influence the digital age has on employment. Posts on Facebook or other platforms, written in seconds, can easily return from the past to haunt jobseekers.

Robinson is keen to stress that footballing ability remained the key point of consideration when making 13 new signings prior to the August 31 deadline. But three Premiership wins in a row also speaks of how quickly a transformed squad has managed to gel. And that is not a happy accident.

‘I think what we have done off the pitch is our homework,’ said Robinson. ‘Myself, (chief scout) Martin Foyle and (performance analyst) Ross Clarkson sat for hours finding out about people’s character, what they’ve done previously. And people give a lot away on social media! So you find out who is a good lad and who is not.

‘Listen, you don’t get them all right. I feel we got the vast majority of characters correct and they are obviously decent players. We don’t spend millions of pounds on players, but if we bring players in we can’t afford to get too many wrong.

‘You have to do your due diligence on their background, their injury profiles. We do all of that and it’s massively time consuming. I need to pay tribute to Martin and Ross for the work they do. We have good characters. That gives you have a chance.’

Asked if looking at social media was something he did personally, Robinson added: ‘I certainly don’t! But we do (as a club). I think it’s a footprint of what people do.

‘It’s only a small part of what we do. We obviously look at the footballing ability first and foremost and then their background. You have to do every single check.

‘We looked at a boy and there was no record of his injury history. But we actually found an injury three years previously that was very serious. We ended up not signing him because of it.

‘We found that off his Twitter profile so we do go to those depths to ensure our details are right.

‘It’s not make or break whether you sign someone, I’ll make that very clear, but what it does is give you an indication of who they are as a person.’

The age profile also mattered, not least in terms of potential future sell-on value.

‘We have recruited players around the age of 22 and 23 and made a conscious effort to bring in boys who were hungry and wanted to prove things,’ added Robinson. ‘So far it’s been okay but we’re not getting carried away.

‘Listen, I’m happy with it but I’m not saying we’re a top-six side, we’re going to win the cup or the league. None of that. We just need to keep doing what we are doing — and doing it well.

‘We have a dressing room and a squad where I think I can put anyone of my 21 players into the first team and it won’t weaken. It would be similar. So you need to have boys who are going to be able to deal with disappointment (of being left out) as well.

‘Everyone wants to start the match and my job now is to make sure everyone is still hungry.’

Supporters have invested in Robinson’s ideas. Gates at Fir Park are up by around 500 on the corresponding period last season, with a 20-per-cent hike in season-ticket sales.

‘It’s pleasing,’ noted Robinson. ‘We’d love to get even more in and if you keep winning games then perhaps that’ll happen.

‘We play a brand of football I think the crowd associate with. We tell them to chase every ball, don’t give up on anything. People can have a bad pass or a bad game but you can give it 150 per cent every time you go on the pitch. We out-compete teams then play.’

Victories over Ross County, Hearts and Kilmarnock have lifted Motherwell onto nine points, one above Hibernian — whom they visit at Easter Road tomorrow. It will be the first time Robinson has encountered former Northern Ireland team-mate Neil Lennon on managerial duty.

‘I’m looking forward to that,’ he said. ‘I have the utmost respect for Lenny for what he’s done for both a player and a manager.

‘There will be a mutual respect there and we’ll speak after the game.’