SWINDON Town will be bracing themselves for a battle to keep Matt Ritchie at the County Ground beyond January after Bournemouth had a substantial bid for the winger rejected yesterday.

The League One side have been a long-time admirer of the former Portsmouth player and had several bids turned down before the loan window closed towards the end of November.

Bournemouth revived their interest in Ritchie last week by making an offer of £500,000 and that was again rebuffed by the Town hierarchy.

But the Cherries are unlikely to be perturbed and will no doubt once again test Swindon’s resolve with further bids when the transfer window opens again next week.

But Paolo Di Canio has urged Ritchie not to let his head be turned by such offers and is hopeful that Bournemouth opting to make their interest in him public will not unsettle the player.

The Town boss told the Advertiser: “It is a big amount of money and for Ritchie or any player to have interest from a club at a higher level, it can give you an extra lift and you feel happy that other teams are watching.

“The important thing is how the player reacts.

“If realistically you know you will remain because the money will not change your life and you want to keep going and play our type of football, then you need to think about this.

“It could happen that a player plays well for a period and then is not so good for the next 20 games so it is my suggestion that a player keeps going, play at this level and then you can have even more requests in the future.

“This should be good for a player.”

Di Canio and the Town board will certainly be in for a busy couple of weeks as they look to keep hold of their best players, whilst also bringing in further quality.

“In terms of players coming in we have targets but at the moment I don't want to talk about names, that's not fair,” said Di Canio.

“We have targets and hopefully we can bring some of those to the club.”

See today's Adver for last night's match report, statistics and reaction from Paolo Di Canio, skipper Paul Caddis and striker Ronan Murray.