Football Season Guide

The appointment of Peter Taylor as the manager of Gillingham early in the previous season had a mixed reception among the Gills' fans, mainly because many of them felt that the club has not been fair with previous manager Martin Allen, but Taylor managed to win over the fans after easily steering the Gills towards survival. The experienced manager will have to deal with bigger expectations this time around - he had his contract extended near the end of the previous season, and will be expected to turn the Gills into promotion candidates within two years. The core of last season's side has been left intact, as the three players who left, Bayo Akinfenwa, Myles Weston and Chris Whelpdale, all struggled to establish themselves as first team regulars last season. Taylor managed to sign as many as nine players during the summer, meaning that the Gills will no longer have problems with squad depth. Most of these players have little or no previous League One experience and will be looking to prove themselves in the third tier, but the Gills also managed to bring in former Port Vale skipper Doug Loft, who is a rather big name at this level and played a remarkable 2013/14 campaign for the Valiants. Given the fact that majority of their new signings are unknowns at this level, it is difficult to give any confident assessments of the Gills' squad strength, but they definitely seem to be heading in the right direction and will be expected to do better than they did last season.