Gillingham manager Neil Harris has spoken of his disappointment at losing his head of recruitment.

Nicky Shorey’s departure was announced on Tuesday - with Gillingham appointing a recruitment consultant Harris only met for the first time this week. James King - a man with a background in football agency - will now work with owner/chairman Paul Scally on finding players to bring in this January.

Commenting on Shorey’s departure, Harris said: “It’s a real shame and I am really disappointed. (He’s a) top guy, a great eye (for a player) and he was my main man out scouting.

“I understand football and that you have to make changes sometimes, things change, but he is going to be a big loss. It's a shame, especially just before January.”

Setting up a recruitment department was a key objective at the club when Harris took over and Shorey was the man he chose to head it up.

“The recruitment department at the football club was in its infancy really,” Harris said. “(We were) just trying to build it. It was a start.

“We were going to build from that, and building involves investment and funding, which we haven’t been able to do yet. We were getting up and running, it was a starting point for the football club and so to take that away was a real shame.”

There were big summer changes after last season’s relegation and plenty of players recruited but the club find themselves second from bottom in League 2.

Harris said: “Was the recruitment good enough? It was very tough, we got some right but when you recruit so many players, some work out and some don’t work out. It takes time to build a squad and certainly more than one transfer window.

“The beauty of the next one, however tough it is in January, was to try and adjust and support and go again and that is why on the eve of January, making these changes is probably difficult for the football department.

“The club made a decision and as a manager I have to support my football club.”

Harris met the new man King for the first time on Tuesday and he said: “I don’t know James particularly well, he is going to work closely with Paul Scally, on recruitment side. I will obviously be in the loop towards the end, that is about as much as I know at the moment.

“We hope James brings the future to us, and hopefully players that will improve us, to make us better as a group, and I look forward to working with him.”

It leaves Harris to concentrate on the football and the short-term.

He said: “We have to get through to the January transfer window, look at personnel in the building and look at who might want to change.

“I have a lot to focus on at the moment, with my hands full trying to get the right results haven’t I? I have to focus on getting the results right.

“You can talk about recruitment and ultimately as a manager you are only as good as the players that you have, then what you have is down to me as a manager to get right. We have clearly not had good enough results, we accept that and yes January is important.

“I have to use my knowledge and contacts but getting out to see players has been difficult for me personally, because it will be our 30th game on Thursday (against Dagenham in the FA Cup) and I have not had many spare nights I have to be honest, in the the process of watching games back, preparing for games, taking training, so we will see.

“The idea is that I concentrate on the football side of things and Paul and James get on with the recruitment side of things and we will see where that takes us.”

Harris admits he isn’t sure exactly how the new recruitment set-up will work but said: “At the moment it will be with James and the board, to have names, and conversations within clubs and agents, then players put to me, whether I think they are appropriate for what we need.

“I will have people reach out to me and people I know that are available and I will have to let the club know about that but it is early stages, I don’t really know what will happen.

“It’s about working from day to day at the moment so let’s see what Dagenham brings, that is my full focus, then Bradford and, ahead of Stockport, I might get more of a feel with how is is going to work.”