January transfer window: Gillingham head coach Stephen Clemence says new signings are not his primary focus yet with five League 2 games to play in December

Gillingham head coach Stephen Clemence has spoken at length about the January transfer window for the first time.

The 45-year-old has only been in the job for just over a month but the opportunity to strengthen his squad is on the horizon, even though there are five league games to play before the turn of the year.

New signings will ultimately be down to head of recruitment Andy Hessenthaler and director of football Kenny Jackett but Clemence will provide valuable input.

“It’s not something I’ve gone into great detail about with the board but it’s something we have to have our eye on,” explained Clemence.

“It’s coming around quick now, there’s no real movement happened up to now.

“Obviously, anyone who comes into this club is going to have to be a very good player because the players that I do have here are decent.

“There’s no point bringing people in just to fill up the squad, if they’re going to come in they have to be ready to go into the team and try and make us better. We’ll have to see if we can do that.”

If Clemence wants to start shaping the squad his way, then that may mean players need to depart in order to meet League 2’s financial regulations.

Whatever the potential scenarios ahead, the head coach was keeping the strategy very much in-house.

“It's not a conversation we’ve gone into great detail about,” he added. “I’ve spoken to people inside the club but it’s not something I’m going to share now.

“January is coming up, everybody who works in football will be looking at January and if there’s a player out there that can improve us then we’d like to think we’d be interested.”

Clemence is certainly doing his homework, though. He delivered an insight into how much preparation is put in away from the training