GILLINGHAM have sent in the lawyers to solve the legal wrangle surrounding the appointment of their new boss.

Stevenage are not happy about the way Mark Stimson walked out on them but Gills chairman Paul Scally is keen to swiftly resolve the situation.

Stimson’s contract with Stevenage was terminated on Wednesday, allowing him to finally move to Priestfield, but an offer of compensation from Gillingham was declined by the Conference club.

Mr Scally said: “I don’t want this football club to be criticised of inducing someone away from another club, we’ve never done that, we went through the right process.

“Mark made his own decisions, I didn’t force him to come and talk to me. He decided he wanted to manage at league level and he was disappointed with his previous employers that they wouldn’t let him at least talk to league clubs.

“You can always hold up contracts and say you’re contracted but we mustn’t take away people’s ambition in life because without that there’s no real point.”

Prior to Stimson’s appointment, Stevenage chairman Phil Wallace made his position clear, threatening a legal challenge on any club that their former manager ended up at.

Responding, Mr Scally said: “He’s got to do what he has to do and I’ll do what I have to do for this football club.

“Let’s just hope that common sense prevails and it doesn’t turn into a huge battle, because it would be sad if it does. We would certainly like to get this resolved and make sure that the relationship with us and Stevenage is as good as it is with most other clubs in football.”

The Gills chairman pointed to a scenario whereby he was in the same situation, when Peter Taylor left for Leicester, after enjoying some success at the club.

“It’s exactly the same scenario,” he said. “It was right that he should go on and better himself and I was fully behind him in doing that. It’s quite ironic that he’s ended up at Stevenage.”