Gillingham are in need of a big striker and there’s a free agent on the market who some fans think could be the answer.
Northampton Town’s relegation from League One has seen them release up to eight players, and one of them was a popular striker during a previous spell with the Gills.
Tom Eaves was the leading scorer for a struggling Northampton side that finished bottom of the table in the third tier.
Eaves, 34, scored 10 of their goals, including eight in the league.
Gillingham’s leading goalscorer, Bradley Dack, scored seven.
Manager Gareth Ainsworth is likely to want to add a sizeable striker to his ranks now that Sam Vokes has retired and Josh Andrews has been released.
Eaves left the Gills in the summer of 2019 for Hull City, having enjoyed a couple of successful seasons at Priestfield, finishing as the club’s leading scorer with 18 and 22 goals in his two campaigns.
The 6ft 3inch front-man spent three years at Hull, followed by two years at Rotherham, before another two seasons at Northampton. While he hasn’t been as prolific, he hasn’t always been a regular starter.
It’s eight years, almost to the day, that Eaves scored a hat-trick for the Gills in a 5-2 win over Plymouth at Priestfield – the last player to bag a treble for the club. It was his second hat-trick of the 2017/18 season.
One fan on X who was in favour of his return said: “Imagine him getting on the end of Hutton crosses.”
But another said: “Let’s move on from the past!”
Gillingham have also let Elliott Nevitt – a promotion winner at Cambridge United – and Marcus Wyllie go, leaving Seb Palmer-Houlden and Ronan Hale as their two senior forwards.
