Football Season Guide

Gillingham are coming from a turbulent season that saw them badly struggle early on, display promotion form in the middle third and slow down in the final third of the season. The Gills changed as many as four managers in the first three months of the previous campaign, but Steve Lovell did a splendid job in charge and was rewarded with a new two-year contract at the end of the campaign. The drop in form that Gillingham had late in the previous season will certainly worry their fans, but Lovell has now had the summer to make the squad his own and will be hoping to get his men to show the sort of form that they showed during the middle third of the previous campaign. Skipper Lee Martin, winger Scott Wagstaff and defender Ben Nugent are the most prominent players to leave, while Jack Hessenthaler departs after a five-year association with the club. The list of arrivals is rather underwhelming, however. Barry Fuller and Dean Parrett are established League One players, but Regan Charles-Cook, Brandon Hanlan and Callum Reilley have played bit-part roles for their previous clubs. At the moment, Gillingham's squad seems a touch weaker than it was last season, as they have not brought in much in terms of quality, but have lost out in terms of numbers, with their squad currently being smaller than it was last time around. Adding to that their clear lack of momentum from the shocking form that they displayed late previous season, the result is a side whose fans will feel rather worried going into the new campaign.