Gillingham manager Neil Harris on the competition for quality as he looks to add to his League 2 squad

Gillingham manager Neil Harris has “irons are in the fire” as the hunt for additional firepower continues.

The Gills missed out on Alfie May last week - as the striker left Cheltenham for Charlton - and Harris praised the efforts of chairman Brad Galinson for backing him with a sizeable bid.

Harris said: “I tried not to get too excited and tried to dampen it a little bit at times, yes we were keen on Alfie May, there is no secret in that, it has been well publicised.

“I thank Brad for having a right good go at trying to get a player of that calibre and it shows where we are at as a football club, that we are trying to sign quality players, but when you have got probably new owners going in at Charlton and talking about being in the Premier League in five years, we can’t compete with that in the level of deals but we understand that.

“When you see Nick Powell going to Stockport on a three year contract, it just shows. Wrexham haven’t done any business yet because they are waiting for the right ones and they will just go, bang, bang, bang and that’s where we’re at, that is when I am saying to the guys saying, “promotion, promotion”, I say ‘hang on a minute, it’s a bloody good league, this year it is probably one of the best it’s ever going to be’. We just have to be competitive.

“There are irons in fires still and conversations and that does take time but at the moment as a manager with the group I have got in the building, for where we are at in pre-season. I am really pleased.”

Harris has started from a good place this summer, knowing he already has a team well equipped for League 2, but work goes on to bring additional quality in.

He said: “We’ve been close to a couple and they haven’t quite materialised but that