Gillingham midfielder George Lapslie is set to be leaving the club imminently – a move which will help fund new additions.
A deal is understood to have been agreed with Gills’ League 2 rivals Bradford City – with their manager Graham Alexander confirming on Sunday that talks have taken place.
Gillingham will be keen to get a deal concluded as quickly as possible as they need players to leave to free up funds for new arrivals.
Alexander said after their 2-1 win over Chesterfield that a deal hadn’t been rubberstamp but he believed a deal had been agreed between the clubs and had spoken to the player personally, saying: “We hope will join as soon as the window opens.”
Lapslie was first made available for transfer at the end of last season but there were no takers and the 27-year-old remained part of Mark Bonner’s first-team – scoring a winning goal earlier in the season at Morecambe.
He was on target again recently, netting the equaliser against Cheltenham in a 2-2 draw, but was then surprisingly absent for the game at Colchester on Boxing Day.
Bonner put his recent absence down to illness.
Lapslie was one of several players signed when the Galinsons took over the club two years ago, helping the Gills climb off the bottom of League 2 and finish the season mid-table.
Those signings didn’t come cheap, with the likes of Tom Nichols, Tim Dieng and Oli Hawkins also joining the club as Gillingham’s new owners splashed the cash to avoid dropping out of the Football League.
Current boss Bonner now wants some of his own men and he needs to offload before he can make signings. Getting Lapslie off the wage bill will be a good start to the club’s January plans.
His form for the Gills has never managed to reach the heights that were expected, having performed so well at former club Mansfield, including a top display at Priestfield in September 2022 when his old club breezed to a 2-0 win.
Lapslie scored seven goals in the first half of the 2022/23 season but managed just three in the second half of the campaign at Gillingham. Three more followed during the entire 2023/24 season and he’s got two more this term.
He’s played 73 league games for the Gills – almost half of them off the bench – and scored eight goals.
A key ingredient to his imminent move to Bradford is their head of football operations David Sharpe – a long-time admirer of the midfielder.
Sharpe was at Mansfield when they signed him from Charlton in January 2021. A deal that’s concluded quickly will suit all parties.
