Gillingham are looking at quality over quantity this summer as they look to build on a successful January transfer window.

Tom Nichols, Timothee Dieng, Oli Hawkins, George Lapslie, Aiden O’Brien and Conor Masterson were among the January signings that helped turn Gills’ season around and those players have now given manager Neil Harris a platform to build from.

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Harris made 16 new signings in last summer’s transfer window but is only looking at making a handful of additions this time around.

Masterson has now signed permanently while Alex MacDonald and David Tutonda have been offered contracts. He’s got 16 seniors players already on the books.

“We don’t want to bring in as many as last summer,” Harris said. “We are not looking for a large group, I only want 20-21 senior players supplemented with the under-21s to make up training numbers and having an opportunity to join the first team group when it arises, at the right time.

“We are probably looking at adding five to the group.

“Naturally, I always talk about opportunity for players to move on and develop elsewhere or for game-time, that might materialise over the course of the summer or pre-season.

“We are looking at adding five senior players to the core group, I am talking about coming in ready-made to play and go into a League 2 team, to be competitive, to get us into the mix at the top end of the division, that is the level of the player we are looking at.

“We recruited very well in January, we recruited sensibly, and that is going to be the ethos and motto over the course of the summer.

“We are not going out with an open chequebook to go and sign players, we are not in that position, but we are going to be competitive this summer and feel we can add quality to the group we have got already.

“There are a lot of players out of contract, which is good in some ways, there are players available, but in other ways there is competition to sign these players from other clubs.

“We have to be able to get the balance right, we want quality personnel but we want value for money as well.

“We do want value and we want good Gillingham characters. We saw that in the second half of the season, with a good mix of personalities, some really good leadership in different ways on the pitch, and some good young players as well that are developing. The fans really bought into it.

“I really enjoyed working with the core group and that is what we want it to be, we don’t want to rip it up and start again.

“We want to build on what we’ve got and whether they are 36 like Shaun Williams, 39 like Glenn Morris, or 20 like Dom Jefferies, we want players that want to continuously develop and learn.”

This summer is a far cry from last year when Harris was left with just seven players, some of whom he wasn’t keen on keeping. He had Nicky Shorey in to help find some new talent, as head of recruitment, some more successful than others.

Now he’s got an experienced recruitment department set up and just a handful of positions in his squad to fill, there can be more focus on what and who they really need.

The outlook for the Gills twelve months ago was very different and Harris said: “Last summer we had to rip it up and start again in very difficult circumstances, we are not in that position this summer.

“We are a lot healthier position, a position we really feel like we can step forward, a strong position to recruit, a strong position off the pitch with support staff to aid with recruitment and that is a strong position to be in.

“We feel we have got the core group there already and we just need to add some good signings, to what we have got already.

“We are not talking about adding lots of players, we want quality.”

The summer transfer window officially opens on Wednesday, June 14 and closes on Friday, September 1 at 11pm.

Clubs can make deals with contracted players again during the winter window which opens on January 1, 2024 and closes at 11pm on Thursday, February 1, 2024.