Hi-tech Henshall's looking for talent

Now talent-spotting is all done on laptops, and players' social media habits are monitored as much as their first touch.

Shrewsbury Town have appointed their first full-time recruitment administrator to pull together all the reconnaissance on potential targets.

Adam Henshall is the man charged with spotting Town's future talent – and he is determined to bring international standard players to Shrewsbury.

The 23-year-old Arsenal fan, originally from Newport in south Wales but brought up in Shrewsbury, graduated from Loughborough University with a degree in sports coaching and spent his final year working with Leicester City's academy before joining Town, where he has been for two years.

Henshall, who initially did an internship with the club as a performance analyst, has settled into a new position which has enabled performance analyst Michael Vernon to concentrate fully on assessing the opposition.

"The talent identification process starts at the very bottom and goes right the way through," said Henshall, a former pupil at Pontesbury Primary School and Mary Webb who was rejected as a player by Stoke City's school of excellence at 16.

"It's about making sure there's an inherent theme that runs through all ages.

"Previously, I did a lot of work in futsal with talent identification in the England Under-19s programme, so it's about making sure we get that level into Shrewsbury Town. Everyone at the club recognises it as a key role.

"I'm liaising with as many contacts as possible, gathering as much information as possible on potential signings and putting together dossiers on players so the manager can make the correct decisions that will hopefully take this club forward."

Chief executive Brian Caldwell recently inferred bad signings can 'kill' a manager.

Henshall is determined to leave no stone unturned in the bid to find the right players for manager Micky Mellon to minimise the risks involved.

"The talent identification process is all about personal opinions, so you make sure you get as many opinions as possible," he said.

Part of the role includes assessing a player's character, which these days extends to their social media habits.

"With so much going on in social media, it's important to delve deeper into players' backgrounds," said Henshall.

"The last thing you want is a fantastic player that doesn't fit the character mould or one who doesn't take this club forward in the right manner.

"We use the WyScout database on players and then players' social media activity, character references from our own players who can tell us about them, so we look into every possible avenue."

At 23 and with a degree, Henshall doesn't fit the 'flat cap and pipe' traditional stereotype of a scout. So how does he gain the respect of experienced football staff relying on his expertise?

"The trust I've gained from the staff here is something I've earned," he said.

"I'm not the traditional scout type with the flat cap, but whether you're 20, 30, 40, whoever is the best person at gathering that information is the best for the job.

"He (Mellon) puts trust in me. I've been given set guidelines and I stick to those.

"I back my ability and I'm working for a fantastic staff – the best guys I've ever met."

Henshall has a wide-ranging brief; Town have recently expanded their scouting network from the UK and Ireland and into Europe.

"We're expanding at an ever-growing rate," he said. "We recently went into Spain so we're beginning to go into the EU as well which is fantastic."

But Henshall is determined Shrewsbury won't neglect talent on their doorstep.

"A massive part of our recruitment is making sure we don't miss players in this area," he said.

"Shrewsbury Town run an advanced development centre programme, a link between grassroots football to the academy. So from under-eights to under-12s to 16s, we're covering football.

"No matter what player we're linked with, I've most probably watched them and gathered information on them.

"I've got them covered. The role is about making sure we don't miss any talent."