Town close in on deal for midfielder despite change of manager at Tottenham (From Swindon Advertiser)

Town close in on deal for midfielder despite change of manager at Tottenham

6:00am Saturday 7th July 2012 in Local By Sam Morshead

PAOLO Di Canio has revealed that Swindon Town are making progress in their attempts to bring Tottenham’s John Bostock to the County Ground, insisting the recent change of manager at White Hart Lane has not hampered the Robins’ chances of landing the midfielder on a long-term loan.

Bostock impressed Di Canio during a six-week stay with Town towards the back end of last season, and the Italian has stressed throughout the summer that he would be keen to bring him back to Wiltshire for the upcoming League One campaign.

Spurs recently replaced boss Harry Redknapp with ex-Chelsea chief Andre Villas-Boas, leading some to believe any potential deal for the former Crystal Palace youngster could be on the rocks.

But Di Canio emphasised that that is not the case, and he went as far as to suggest Swindon are actually closing in on a deal for the 20-year-old.

“We are waiting because they changed their manager. Now Villas-Boas is to sign but normally it’s the club that decides,” he said.

“The responsible man for the academy (Tim Sherwood), I played many times against him and he is a good guy and I spoke to him and I’m still in contact with him.

“Apparently we made a step forward, apparently, but there is nothing on paper. We have to wait and obviously if we have a chance then I would have him.”

One of the major draws of signing Bostock, in Di Canio’s eyes, is his versatility.

Town have been operating a 4-4-2 system for the majority of Di Canio’s reign, but the Swindon boss said having the Spurs starlet available to him would mean he could tinker with his formation.

“He gives me an extra option more than everyone up front, to play with a different system during the season,” he said.

“This season we will maintain our identity, which is 4-2-4 when we’re attacking and then we can play with 4-4-2. But during the game I’d like to integrate into the system another way to attack and to defend, for example 4-3-1-2.

“I hope he can come but obviously I don’t want him just for this because he can play as a second striker. I convinced him last year to play two or three games second striker and he did very well.

“The only negative thing is that he couldn’t join us now. That would have been very good for him because he was a bit heavy last year. With us he should have a fantastic physical condition.

“He’s very young, he’s full of energy, he’s a powerful guy – you can imagine with three or four kilos less and fast pace he would be a very good player in League One.”