Gills chairman Paul Scally believes he is getting closer to securing the financial clout needed to take the club to the next level.

Mr Scally, who sacked manager Peter Taylor on New Year's Eve, is targeting a place in the Premier League and has been hunting globally for the investment needed to make that dream come true.

Plans to move the club across town to a new purpose-built stadium at Mill Hill are continuing and that, says Mr Scally, is making the club a lot more attractive.

“We are in a really good position,” said the Gills chairman

“I am talking to a lot of potential investors and a lot of people I am trying to interest with the future of the club.

“I have probably made more progress in the last year than I have in previous years, although in fairness I haven’t spent as much time on it in previous years.

“With the new potential stadium at Mill Hill I think it is now an attractive club to come and help along.

“I have been putting in more effort because I realise that to take the club to where we want to take it and believe it can go, to get there it is going to need a lot more input than I have got available to me.

“I have been meeting some very interesting and very high profile people.”

All of those potential investors are bases abroad.

Regarding the level of finance those investors could introduce, Mr Scally said: “We haven’t talked about numbers but whatever is appropriate and necessary to get the club more competitive and to get into the Championship at the first instance and further on after that.

“That drive goes hand in hand with the new stadium. If you are offering someone the opportunity of a new stadium and investment in a club that has the potential to go forward then it becomes an attractive package.

“I have always believed Gillingham Football Club, because of its location and demographics, because there is no other Football League club in Kent and because of the population, has the potential to go to the Premier League and stay there.

“You only have to look at clubs like Swansea and Hull. The conurbation of Medway is far greater than most of these clubs.”

Read more from Paul Scally in this week's Medway Messenger, as he talks about competition from Kent teams and beyond.