Gillingham manager Mark Stimson has revealed he would love to bring striker Ade Akinbiyi back to the club.

The 34-year-old approached the Gills earlier in the season about a possible move and although nothing materialised then, Stimson is keeping the door firmly open.

“I would welcome someone like him with open arms because he’s a fantastic footballer,” said Stimson.

“You don’t know. When the window opens for a loan deal for four weeks we would love to take him.”

The window for loan transfers opens on Monday and with money still in his transfer budget, Stimson would be keen to add to his front line.

He said: “Financially it would be way, way out of our bracket but if the chairman could pull something like that off for a month or two, then it would definitely be worth it.

“We haven’t used a lot of the money from the Aston Villa game so we are just waiting around for a crazy deal like that to happen.”

Akinbiyi, who once cost Gillingham a then club record £250,000 when he moved to the club from Norwich City in January, 1997, scored 28 goals in 63 appearances while at Priestfield before moving to Bristol City for £1.2million in May, 1998.

Former crowd favourite Akinbiyi is currently in the final year of his contract at Burnley and plans to move abroad at the end of the season.

** Read the full story in Friday's Medway Messenger