Gillingham’s winger Garath McCleary turns 39 in May but could still play a part for the club next season.
McCleary has shown glimpses of his quality for the Gills this season, and his goal on Monday against Accrington was a touch of class, firing home from the edge of the box.
The Gills signed the player last summer on a one-year contract – with the option of extending it for another 12 months – and manager Gareth Ainsworth must decide whether to take that option up.
McCleary has managed 22 games for the Gills this season – 10 of those off the bench.
“He’s above this level,” said the Gills boss. “That’s why he’s played there for most of his career.
“The age he’s at, I can empathise. I played two more years from where Garath is, so I’m telling him, ‘There’s still plenty to come’.
“It was a cracking goal. It’s great for the Gillingham fans to see that and go, ‘That’s what we’ve come for – that’s what we’ve paid our money for’, moments like that.
“It’s great for us. We’ve got some good players in attacking positions, and I’m sure we’ll keep rotating until the end of the season now.
“I didn’t have the body that Garath McCleary’s got at 39, believe me, and he lets us all know that when he takes his top off all the time!
“We were different players. I have four [pieces] of metal in my body now because I played to that age so, I’ve warned Garath about that, but he’s up for keeping going.”
Ainsworth signed McCleary back in November 2020 when he was managing at Wycombe in the Championship. He remained there before joining the Gills this summer.
Ainsworth said: “Garath’s a good player and he enjoys playing the way we play.
“He enjoys our relationship and hopefully we’ll see many more moments like that, at least for another season, but we’ll see.
“He’s definitely in my thought process. I think he can keep going.
“There’s a lot to do in this summer with contracts, talks with players in and out of contracts, with new signings, structural issues at the club which I think has been mentioned as well. There’s a lot of change we want to put in here, but you’ll all get to know and we’ll do it what we think is the best for Gillingham FC.”
Bradley Dack, another of the club’s senior players who is out of contract this summer, replaced McCleary after an hour on Monday.
McCleary had completed the 90 minutes against Walsall a few days earlier.
Ainsworth said: “That’s his second game in four days so I decided to rotate with him and Bradley. I know Bradley wants to play every single minute of every game, and I would at his age, but Bradley is just quality.
“Bradley’s suffered with his injuries, so we’ve got to be careful with him, and Garath with his age now, so [we’ll] keep rotating them. It’s not a bad two to keep rotating.”
