PAOLO Di Canio refused to be drawn on speculation regarding his future at Swindon Town after watching his side draw 1-1 with Crawley on Saturday.

The Italian released a statement exclusively to the Swindon Advertiser on Friday which revealed that he is considering his position as manager of the club after a turbulent week at the County Ground saw Matt Ritchie sold to Bournemouth behind his back.

However, after the match at the Broadfield Stadium, he would not comment on the statement or his reasons for releasing it.

He said: “I don’t speak about this. It is matchday. I want to speak about the team’s performance and not the statement. It’s clear and everyone can deduct from it what they want. Today I only want to speak about how I am proud of my players.

“It wasn’t easy, even if I was angry at the time, to react and give everything and come back in this game. They did that, I’m more than proud and we can look forward to the future.”

When questioned why he chose the night before a game to make such a public show of intent, he said: “There is a moment you have to make a decision on something, and I did that yesterday.

“I know for people, and for English people especially, there is a time that you decide because probably you know everything about football. Probably you don’t know nothing, maybe it means you want to arrive at some point.

“It’s easy to comment from outside: ‘Why not after the game?’ Why, because I have reasons. One day you will know the reason.

“It takes 10 or 15 minutes to make a statement for me and then I am an animal straight away and I can be focused about my team.

“When you give all the details, when you have done your job properly you can consider 10 minutes or watching a beautiful movie or another football match or make another statement like I did.

“If I am not wrong, today there is proof that I was totally focused.

“Credit goes to my players but with my change the game changed.

“I hope not. Why? I hope not for different reasons. Tomorrow we’re working, Monday we’re working, Tuesday we play Colchester.

“We have a game to play which is a fantastic game to play because if we win we can go two points from second place.

“Straight away I’m focused on the next game.”