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When Dennis Adeniran trotted onto the surface at Cappielow Park as a trialist for St Mirren, there was a scramble to discover his name, where he played and then assess his performance.

Phones quickly pulled out in the away end and a mad clattering at keyboards in the press box followed the 25-year-old's introduction to the Renfrewshire derby as a mystery man.

For Stephen Robinson, there was little to discover that he didn't already know having tried to sign the player five years ago as Motherwell manager.

"Dennis is someone I have known for a long time," said the St Mirren manager of the midfielder signed on a free from Israeli side Hapoel Petah Tikva. "We liked him at Everton and tried to get him on loan at Motherwell and he was on way too much money for us at that stage.

"He has just probably lost his way a little bit in his career. He is a very talented boy, he comes in and really puts pressure on our midfielders - you see the two boys [Oisin Smyth and Dennis] came on against Fleetwood are very good footballers so there is real competition. That's what we want, we don't want anything thinking they will stay in the team and rest on their laurels, we have to have competition.

"I believe we have put together a very competitive squad now, small but competitive which was our choice."

Adeniran - a former England youth internationalist - was a £4m-player when he first moved from Fulham to Everton in 2017. 

He was unable to make a breakthrough at Everton, though, and played for Sheffield Wednesday before a spell in Portugal at Portimonense and then onto Israel for six months.

With just nine games in the last year, Adeniran falls into the similar mould of many of Robinson's success stories in football recruitment. And Robinson reckons Adeniran can follow the pathway to progress in Paisley similar to the likes of Toyosi Olusanya and Caolan Boyd-Munce.

"It's the way I have always done it," said Robinson on his impressive recruitment track record. "At Motherwell, people hadn't heard of most signings, but they've got certain attributes and Dennis has got a lot of very good attributes.

"He has got the talent to play at a much higher level; whether it's injuries or decisions have led him here.

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"When he came to the club he was very impressed, he likes what we're trying to do and how we're trying to play.

"He's still a long way from fitness, as is Oisin so it's a case of trying to get them up to speed to really challenge the boys in front of them. 

"He's another talented boy who hopefully will be an asset to the football club."

Meanwhile, Robinson has vowed St Mirren will dictate the transfer fee for their players as he stated no further bids have been considered for Nothern Ireland internationalist Boyd-Munce.

The midfielder was targeted by Leyton Orient but a £175k bid was thrown out by Paisley chiefs. Wigan have also been credited with interest in the 24-year-old. St Mirren are keen to keep hold of Boyd-Munce with a new contract offer on the table.

Quizzed on any further bids for Boyd-Munce, Robinson said: "None that we are going to look at. I've stated previously, we will dictate the price of players, not players or agents or anybody else. We'll dictate it.

"When the right offer comes in for a St Mirren player we do business. 

"Players have got a choice, they can see their contract out, which I totally respect, and gamble or they can go for the price we want them to go for and that's it, simple.

"Caolan is fully focused, he needs to be to make sure he stays in the team, ultimately that is the first and foremost in his mind.

"There is no issue there, Caolan is focused and ready to kick on."