Gillingham have moved on to stage two of their summer recruitment plan – but fans might have to wait a little while longer for more new faces.
The Gills acted quickly after last season ended to get in the free-agent targets that they had identified, making four additions to the squad.
Four Gillingham players from last season’s squad remain available for transfer – George Lapslie, Scott Malone, Ashley Nadesan and Oli Hawkins – and what happens with them could determine who boss Mark Bonner can bring in.
The Gills also have an eye on the loan market but may have to wait until later into pre-season before clubs higher up the pyramid decide who they want to send out.
Bonner has said he’s unlikely to have anyone new in before July 1, when the players report back for pre-season training.
“I don’t expect anything now until the players are back,” he said.
“We have got a bit of movement to make in the squad in terms of players available but there’s no update there at the moment. Then as and when the opportunities come our way over pre-season I am sure we will add to the squad.”
Chairman Brad Galinson has hinted that they’re waiting on players to leave to balance up the books.
Mr Galinson said: “We want to balance it up a bit and timing-wise, free agents we wanted to do early, which we did. Now the loans and people released late are more into July.”
Bonner is pleased with the business they’ve done so far which gives them a group of players that he already liked the look of.
“The key to us was going early,” he said. “In a difference to previous years we start pre-season with a really good number of players so we can train properly and play properly.
“If we had a game tomorrow I could put a team on the pitch, a whole squad capable of playing the way I want them to, so that is a good start and we will add to that as time goes on.
“Part of that will be from lists that we are working on now and identifying players who we think might be able to help us.
“[Those players] may not be available until a few weeks into pre-season if they are loan players or might not be available because we need to move some players out before we can add any more to the squad. There are lots of moving parts there.
“We will add, we will strengthen and we will be as strong as we can be going into the season but I don’t expect anything else yet.”
Bonner will assess the squad during pre-season and in those early weeks may feel he needs to rethink some of their transfer plans.
He said: “The major point is that I haven’t met them all yet. I haven’t taken a training session or had a meeting or played a game so we have a lot of learning to do about each other in the next month or so and then we will see where we are.
“We have a lot of time before game one [on August 10] and even longer before the window shuts [at the end of August].”
