By Luke Cawdell

Martin Allen has no intention of freezing out any of his three transfer-listed Gillingham players.

The Gills boss put striker Ben Strevens (pictured), defender Connor Essam and goalkeeper Ross Flitney on the transfer list at the start of January.

All three remain at Priestfield and, while they do, Allen insists they will be looked after.

He said: "We treat them well and they are not made to do cross-country at 4pm in the afternoon like Trevor Francis (at QPR) made me do.

"I treat them properly. I speak to them and they train with the first team squad and we look after them.

"I do understand how some of them might be upset but in my job, I have to make these decisions.

"If I don’t make those decisions then I’m not doing my job properly. It is not an easy thing to do but we need to trim our squad – we have got too many players."

A handful of young players were released recently but there are still 27 professionals registered with the club.

Allen said: "I can’t even fit some of them on the subs’ bench and we certainly can’t be taking them all with us for away games."