PAOLO Di Canio is desperate to hang onto his soon to be departing loan players, saying keeping the trio of Danny Hollands, Chris Martin and John Bostock would make him the “happiest manager in the world”.

Hollands and Martin will see their current deals in Wiltshire expire after tomorrow’s League One clash with Carlisle at the County Ground, while Bostock is set to follow the pair out of SN1 two days later.

With cash tight at the Robins, Di Canio is working on freeing up funds from elsewhere to allow him to keep all three men rather than run the risk of losing them back to their parent clubs.

He said: “We are working hard.

“It would be fantastic to keep them but we will work hard to keep them and announce it in the next few days.

“The first step is to keep them, even if it happens in a week’s time, but I would like to see this situation on Monday.

“If it happens on Friday then for five days they will go somewhere before a key game of the season.

“We have to find a way to keep them.

“We are working hard.

“You know the situation, we can’t count at the moment on some help. We are trying everything to find the pounds to keep them.

“We can’t think like last year. I want to do this as soon as I can.

“I have to think of the next game against Carlisle but I also have to think about the rest of the season.

“If we don’t take the chances we have to keep the players we’ve got then it’s more dangerous than having a bad game.

“I would sign now, although obviously I want to win, if they said you will lose Saturday and get the players. We can do both.

“Until the day they sign until the end of the season you don’t know what will happen.

“I have to be realistic and take it step by step.

“It would be fantastic to keep those players.

“It would make me completely happy and it would be a dream to have those three players plus another one that can join us.

“If they tell me I have enough money to keep those three I would jump at that and I’d be the most happy manager in the world.

In an ideal world, Di Canio would like to sign on at least one more player on top of Hollands, Martin, Bostock and the already resigned Ward.

Forest Green Rovers striker James Norwood was reported as being a Town target yesterday, while the club are also believed to still be interested in Sheffield Wednesday’s Gary Madine.

“It would be perfect if we could bring in not even two but one extra player.

“But to be honest now I can’t hope,” said Di Canio.