Gillingham boss Neil Harris says five or six players have been made contract offers | Cheye Alexander triggers new deal by meeting appearance clause

Boss Neil Harris says Gillingham have made new contract offers to a number of players.

Gills announced on Friday that long-serving centre-half Max Ehmer had signed a new deal at Priestfield.

Further offers have been made, while Harris revealed right-back Cheye Alexander is on board for next season after meeting an appearance clause in his contract.

Gillingham are planning a League 2 promotion push next season and want their best players on board as soon as possible.

“I hope other players are signing,” said Harris, following news of Ehmer's deal.

“We’ve offered five or six players contracts. We want them all to sign.

“We’ve made the decisions, I’ve made the decisions and been supported by the football board on the decisions.

“We want them to stay and form the nucleus of a squad for next year, that we can add to.

“Not every player’s going to stay, for different reasons: family reasons, monetary reasons, levels, whatever it is.

“But we now want to stay tying players down, so Max is the first to commit and Cheye Alexander extended his contract by hitting a clause in his contract a couple of weeks ago on games played, so he’ll be with us next year as well.

“We’re looking for other players to commit and we’re pushing hard to get them signed up.”

Those yet to be offered deals still have a chance to influence Harris in the final four games of the season, starting with the visit of Leyton Orient tomorrow.

That provides extra incentive to finish the campaign strongly while, on the flip side, Gillingham may also need to win players over.

Harris said: “The jury’s still out on some players and probably the same for them wanting to recommit to us as well.

“Some have been offered contracts and hopefully we fall the right side of