Gillingham boss Gareth Ainsworth believes he is one attacking signing away from completing his forward line-up.
An overhaul of the squad over the summer has so far seen Ainsworth bring in seven new faces but at least two more are due to arrive – possibly on loan.
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Striker Will Goodwin and versatile forward Kadeem Harris and James Brophy have been added to the squad but Ainsworth still wants to bring in more pace to his attack.
Ainsworth wants to bring in a left-back and said: “We’ll probably also need one more attacking player with some pace and then I’ll pretty much be done.
“Hopefully we’ll add one in that department, but you never know.
“Maybe something just creative, just in case we lose somebody or just to bolster the squad.
“At the moment we’re looking at some of these young boys. Louie Dayal, great, and Sulli Booth, great and Damien [Theodore]. But [they’re] just sometimes a bit naive, a bit young, and they need to have a chance.
“I don’t want to stick them in and they fail. We’ve got to build them up slowly, as we’ve done with your likes of Sam Gale and people like that.
“We’re not going to just chuck them in and go, right, if you don’t play well, you’re not going to get a football career. You’ve got to be really careful with these youngsters and we’ll do it the right way.
“I’m quite happy with what I’ve got and I’m looking forward to getting stuck into the season.”
Goodwin scored his first goal of pre-season on Tuesday night – netting the winner against Millwall. Ronan Hale also started the midweek game and Seb Palmer-Houlden came off the bench.
Palmer-Houlden is a player Ainsworth has been really impressed with since their summer return.
“He’s come back in fantastic shape,” said the Gills boss.
“We’ve got two big men, runner-strikers there. Ronan is very clever, with Will, obviously, James [Brophy] who can play in that role. Garath McCleary to come back. Bradley Dack can play in that role. Nick Freeman we’ve seen in that role.
“I think we’ve got a decent outfit of strikers there and I’m looking forward to seeing how many goals they can get.”
Freeman looks set to sign. The Gills have stopped referring to him as a trialist in games and Ainsworth is already talking about him as part of the squad.
He said: “Nick Freeman’s like a Swiss Army knife, he’s got everything in there and you can play him anywhere as is James Brophy.
“Talking about [needing a] left-back. I think he played double-figure games for Cambridge at left-back, an actual left-back last season.
“There’s versatility and adaptability in the squad, which I need because I want it smaller, I want it tighter. We have this versatility and we will be using it throughout the season.
“The new signings are settling well and hopefully we can keep them more fit and keep them more firing.”
Asked about whether he would be looking at the free agent market, Ainsworth made it clear that loans were the preferred route at present.
He said: “We’ll probably be getting players from clubs, maybe loan players.
“You can get some super loans. Some teams who got promoted last year had some super loans in their team, Bromley and Notts County, especially, as well as Cambridge with the boy from Millwall, Adam Mayor at left-back.
“Loans do help, if you get the right ones.
“I’ve always made a good use of free agents when the window closes.
“We’ll see what happens but I think we’re looking probably more down the loan route at the moment.” Mayor, 21, signed for Scottish side Hibernian last week.
