PAOLO Di Canio has been hugely impressed by Chris Martin’s development at Swindon Town during his loan spell from Norwich.

The striker has yet to score in six appearances for the Robins since making the temporary switch from Carrow Road, and is set to return to the Premier League side after the home clash with Carlisle on January 5.

However, Di Canio is understood to be keen to keep the frontman after witnessing the 24-year-old’s transformation during his time in a Swindon shirt.

“Now we are starting to see the player that he is. At the end of the game last time he won the penalty with 20 minutes to go, he drove the ball forwards 20 yards, he turned and twisted and they challenged him,” he said.

“It was something he couldn’t do when he first arrived in here. In the first game he missed three goals in 10 minutes, dived for the ball because he didn’t have the strength to run over the ball and keep the ball.

“Now he is 89 kilos. When he arrived, and I don’t want to blame him in public, he was nearly 95. That’s nearly six kilos.

“You can see now that he can turn and twist. You see now in training sessions, you watch him and you think he is a completely different player.

“Even when I say in jest that he is a quality player but he is heavy, it’s a different quality now. Everything he’s doing has more mobility and is more effective in total. Before you should see the control of the ball, the flick – now when he turns and twist and he tries to strike with left and right foot from 20 yards he’s a real player.

“It’s a shame to lose those players now because it proves that I was right. The quality was there, it’s pure.”