PAOLO Di Canio has insisted he will not be afraid to make the tough decisions when it comes to determining which players will leave Swindon and which will stay when the transfer window opens next week.

The Town boss has long spoken of his intent to bring new players to the club in January in order to give the Robins the best chance of achieving their pre-season target of automatic promotion.

A proven goalscorer is high on Di Canio’s target list, but he will have to ship players out of the County Ground in order to give him the leeway he needs to bring in the quality he desires.

Michael Timlin will make a permanent switch to Southend next month while Leon Clarke is almost certain to leave, with a whole host of Football League clubs from the Championship down to League Two understood to be interested in the striker.

Mattia Lanzano is also expected to head for pastures new if the goalkeeper can find a club in his native Italy, while there is now a question mark over the future of striker Mehdi Kerrouche, who has failed to figure for the first team recently.

“I will not be soft with some players and will tell them straight to their face if I don’t need them because of the way we play,” said Di Canio.

“Maybe a player can score 20 goals with another club but that may not happen in my team because of the way we play.

“I will be honest with the players because I have a big responsibility for this club. I have a desire to do something special for the fans and I desire to keep the promise I made to them at the start of the season.

“I will do everything in my power to change something and to keep Swindon in the promotion places.”

The Boxing Day defeat to Torquay – Swindon’s first loss in 16 games – meant they dropped to seventh in League Two, just one point and one place above local rivals Oxford.

Di Canio has already admitted that extra quality is needed if Town are to avoid slipping out of the promotion places but believes some of his own players can improve as well, if they learn to become more self-critical.

“The fact that we are still in a play-off place after the Torquay defeat is a miracle because we have a group of young players with good quality - if they keep their discipline and understand the way they need to play,” he added.

“As a manager I make the decisions. I should change the formation since kick off, I should change it after 20 minutes. I always blame myself and if my players do the same, then we can improve a lot.

“If someone is still thinking, ‘oh I played well’ but didn’t score or, ‘oh they were a good team’ then we are far from a good team, but I hope this is not the case.”