Gillingham manager Steve Evans has already started to discuss with his players who he wants to keep.

Just hours after their season finished Evans spoke with members of the current squad about their futures and whether they will be offered new deals. Those player talks continued on Monday and the club expect to announce a retained list on Friday.

Evans hopes to meet with chairman Paul Scally in the latter part of the week to complete their own discussions which began last Tuesday. He had a positive first meeting where a plan ahead was discussed.

With the likes of Jordan Graham, Connor Ogilvie and Jack Bonham on expiring deals, there is plenty of talking to be done.

Speaking after Sunday’s match with Plymouth, Evans said: “I will conclude the meetings on Monday so everyone knows exactly where we are going and what our thought are.

“The plan is then I will have a day or two away from it, I will meet with our chairman again Wednesday/Thursday.”

Evans knows he won’t be able to keep hold of all of the players he wants to, adding: “We are going to lose some players because their performances under me this year or the year before have been stunning.

“We will lose some to clubs who can perhaps pay a lot more money with wages and I would never ever decry a player who wants to play higher and if it was my son-in-law who was being offered maybe double or treble his wages you would be saying he has to take it for the sake of his family.”

Evans has already got targets in mind with numerous players coming to the end of their deals elsewhere.

He said: “All managers are now aware of who is out of contract because agents are very busy people, my phone hasn’t stopped for the last month, every day, seven or eight times, messages and emails and WhatsApp.

“We are pretty much aware of who is available and pretty much aware of some of the players we would like to go and have a chat with and see if their ambitions for the new season match ours and whether we get on, because that is important.

“It is most important that we recruit the right players, I said that going into the January window, and we did that, when you look at that it was first class, last summer was problematic because of the reasons we have explained. We are clear about the budget, they don’t go up, they don’t go down, but we can go to work.”

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