Gillingham head coach Stephen Clemence working hard on new recruits for a promotion challenge next season

Talks with potential new recruits at Gillingham have already started.

Head coach Stephen Clemence doesn’t want to hang around this summer as he looks to add the players he feels will turn around their poor goal return.

Clemence has also been speaking with his own squad, including those who he feels won’t be part of his plans next season.

Only a handful of senior players are set to be out of contract this summer and that list is understood to include young midfielder Dom Jefferies, who would still command a fee because of his age. He’s a player Clemence has spoken highly of.

The Gills have struggled for goals over the past three seasons and Clemence knows it’s something he has to fix if they want to be successful.

He said: “I know there is a lot of frustration around the football club and I really do get it, a couple of seasons ago the club scored 35 goals and last season was 36. We’ve only managed 44 this season.

“I think to finish where you want to be in this division you need to be scoring at least 70 goals and if you want to finish in the automatic promotion places you need to be scoring 80. We need to make sure that we fix that problem, that is the aim, and we are working really hard on that at the moment.

“(Last summer) I was very fortunate to watch and coach Manchester City’s young pros, between the ages of 20-24. I was there for five or six weeks.

“I got to meet (manager) Pep (Guardiola) and I was lucky to get some time with him. I said that I was thinking about going into management and any advice for me and he said ‘sign good players!’ He said with the Barcelona team he had he could have managed them blindfolded!

“We have a big summer ahead and it’s my job to sign some good players at the football club that will