Swindon Town Manager Paolo Di Canio insists that Miles Storey is still not guaranteed a place in his starting line-up despite scoring twice in last night’s 3-2 Capital One Cup defeat by Aston Villa.
Di Canio also maintains that Storey, who has now scored three times in five appearances for Town this season, still has a lot to learn if he is to become a top player.
The 18-year-old who was an Apprentice last term has made nine appearances in total for Swindon.
“Everybody thinks he’s ready for the top level. No, one day probably, he’ll be ready but he’ll have to work very hard,” Di Canio told BBC Wiltshire.
“He’s at the base of his improvement.”
Storey, who scored his first professional goal in Swindon’s 4-0 win at Stevenage on Saturday, struck twice in three minutes to set up a possible fourth round upset against Villa, before Christian Benteke hit a late winner for the Premier League side.
But despite the young striker’s recent goal glut, Di Canio says he needs to improve to become a regular in his starting XI.
“I have to use him in a way that I think I can use him,” Di Canio said. “Next game maybe he’ll be on the bench or play half an hour or 20 minutes.”
“Otherwise we’ll lose the sense of reality. We’ll only damage him if we think now he can play League One.”
“Last year it was hard when I brought him up (to the first-team). After two months I sent him back to the youth-team because he didn’t have this education as he was young as a footballer.”
“In the summer we were thought with a full emersion with us and the rest of the professional players, he will improve and maybe understand more.”
