Gillingham managing director Joe Comper says the owners shouldn’t be the target of fan frustration as the club battles to regain momentum in League 2.
The Gills’ poor form has led to frustration among supporters, but Comper insists the Galinsons should not be the target of blame, highlighting the scale of their financial backing and the state of the club when they took over.
“At this moment in time, they’re probably contributing more than they should,” said Comper, speaking before Gills’ yearly accounts laid bare the level of input.
“The one thing I struggle with the fan base is when they start criticising them. I think they have given so much to your club, in terms of finance, in terms of hope, ambition, that they shouldn’t be the ones being criticised.
“They’ve done their bit. And actually, it’s probably the people over the last three years or so that they’ve had working with them that have maybe wasted a lot of their money and spent it unwisely. Actually, that takes time to bring around, and we’re working on it.”
The yearly accounts for the 2024/25 season – published on Thursday evening – reveal how the club are being bankrolled by the Galinsons, by way of a loan of almost £7m and an additional non-repayable £1.6m injection of funds.
Comper believes the club is now moving in the right direction behind the scenes, despite results on the pitch not yet reflecting that progress.
He said: “I do look around now and think we’ve got good people in the building, and they’re all working towards the same plan, the same goal. I think we will get there. I think the Galinsons are not the ones that people should be shouting at.”
He also pointed to the serious challenges facing Gillingham when the current owners arrived, warning that the consequences of decisions made to stabilise the club are still being felt.
“It has repercussions,” he said. “It was heading for non-league and they were turning a club around, a whole club, it wasn’t just a football team.
“They’ve had to turn a whole club that was falling apart, literally, in places.
“They had to do that initially by doing big contracts to save it, and it worked. But then that has repercussions for a couple of years.
“I think then maybe, there was a couple of transfer windows afterwards where it was the same policy of ‘spend big’ on big contracts and try and outspend people. Again, that takes time to turn around.”
With Gillingham now trying to adopt a more sustainable approach, Comper acknowledged the frustration among supporters but stressed that change cannot happen overnight.
He said: “Now, when we’re trying to do it properly, with a proper process, it isn’t a click your fingers and get it done.
“The fans don’t want to hear that, I understand. They don’t want to hear the word patience. In their mind, they’ve given patience. I get it.
“But that’s why we have to block out the noise and just focus on what we’re doing.”
The Gills have a home game against relegation-threatened Newport County this Saturday and sit 16th in the division, eight points off the play-off places.
