Gillingham chairman Brad Galinson wants promotion this season - but insists there are no demands for immediate success.

The Gills have further invested in a squad that enjoyed a successful second half of the League 2 campaign last season and there are heightened expectations on the team from fans, having seen those new players come onboard.

Talk of promotion is in the air but Mr Galinson is also looking at the bigger picture as he strives to make the club successful and self-sustainable.

He said: “We have worked hard from January and into the summer, with Kenny (Jackett), Andy (Hessenthaler) and the (management) group. We have a real club, a squad that I think is going to be competitive.

“We probably have one or two more (signings) to come, but it is very strong and they have done a terrific job.

“When we came in our expectation was to stay in the league, which was hard, but now the expectation is ‘we are a Championship club, when are you going to get promoted?'. It should be this season and if it’s not then it’s going to be ‘Galinson out!’. I am very excited, everyone is very optimistic and the least we will be is quite competitive.

“It is great that the community is behind a community club but with the expectation, the higher you are the further you have to fall.

“I am a bit concerned that too much too fast, but we do have a competitive club so I think as long as we entertain and we play well on the pitch I think everyone will be proud of the boys and they can’t lose.”

When asked if automatic promotion is a must, he quipped: “No, Wembley would be okay!

“It’s our first season back, we’re building our squad and I think we will do the community proud. Promotion would be the icing on that cake.”

The Gills are close to selling more season tickets than they have done before, aiming to reach the 3,500 mark.

“We want people to come and be proud of what they are seeing,” said the club’s owner.

“We want the boys to continue to be positive in the community, and really the whole organisation to get back positively in the community. It is a slow process, it’s starting, promotion is one part of that but it is only one of many tentacles to that.”

Mr Galinson and his wife Shannon are majority owners of the club, heading into their first full season at the helm, while Paul Scally retains a minority stake.

The chairman was asked about Mr Scally’s role at a recent fans’ forum as the former owner continues to have a role in the day-to-day activity at Priestfield.

He said: “He’s a minority owner and is focused very much on the footballing side with his experience and connections and I think he is doing a great job with that.”

The Galinson investment has helped the Gills build a strong squad with fees paid for defender Shad Ogie and striker Ashley Nadesan. Quality players such as Jonny Williams and Scott Malone have also joined.

The summer transfer window has certainly been different to the one in January, as the Gills brought in players to help them escape the drop into non-league.

Mr Galinson said: “It has been a challenge. One thing that was really nice was that in January most players had to be convinced to come here, we may or not have been in the National League. Now just about every player we talk to wants to come.

“The only thing that has been a bit of an obstacle with some was more about just wanting to go into a higher league. I think that says a lot about the direction of the club.”

The Gills had made a sizeable offer to sign forward Alfie May, who eventually joined Charlton, while there was talk of buying Ayr striker Dipo Akinyemi, but the club were put off by the price.

Mr Galinson has kept his stance that he doesn’t want to just throw money at players.

“It is quite important to be sustainable,” he said.

“ A lot of clubs have done it where you can spend too much money on players and if you get it wrong you have wasted your money. But if you get it right you have also set the club up for failure in the future because you hit a cliff, even if you get promoted, where are you? Do you have the right players to go forward in another league?”

Mr Galinson will be joined by daughter O’Neill for the first time at a match this weekend, as she flies in from the US to see what he has got involved with.

He joked: “My daughter is coming to her first game, bringing a friend from America, so there is extra pressure on Neil (Harris) to impress my daughter and her friend!”