PAOLO Di Canio has revealed a handful of negative vibes in the Swindon Town dressing room may have influenced his side’s performances in their poor recent run of form.

Di Canio said that an unnamed member of the Town squad had been overly vocal in training, expressing a desire for more days off for the Robins’ players, and the Italian felt that his views may have dragged down the rest of the team of late.

However, after analysing Swindon’s three consecutive defeats over the course of the past 13 days, Di Canio stressed that he has his squad back on track prior to the trip to Carlisle this afternoon.

He told the Advertiser: “I knew some message had been sent out in the wrong way at the wrong time - for example the Tuesday before Oxford - which came after Preston from a player that played very, very badly against Preston who shouldn’t shout his mouth and send bad messages to the others because he can have a negative influence.

“In a bad moment, before Oxford, maybe he knew he couldn’t be involved and spoke for half-an-hour during the training session and in the dressing room - I can imagine more - ‘we need a day off, we need two days off’ and the next week asks Claudio (Donatelli, Swindon’s fitness coach) ‘can we have Sunday and Monday because we need to book?’ “

Book what? It’s not for me. A player that maybe said he wants to train hard trained hard and then forgot at the first moment he felt tired and played bad, but he has to cancel or he can’t be a part of my squad. “It was August 28, not April.

“Even if they won last year as a champion it is easy to fall in a trap. That is important. I told you in the summer that they will cancel, they will release how they achieved this situation and became champions - especially people like (Alan) McCormack and (Jay) McEveley who joined us during the season and didn’t have pre-season with us.

“Only four remain since last year, forget (Paul) Caddis who’s gone, the others at the beginning accepted the regime and then, when they start to feel tired, they have the habit probably that they have had in the past to relax.

“So Monday was important because I reminded them that I spent 15 days during the summer going up and down as a professional manager just to be sure when I meet the new players, to look in their eyes and say ‘with me it will be tough’.”