Gillingham manager Neil Harris believes things will start to take a turn for the better after what he’s described as “silly season” in the transfer market.

Players and their agents have held the trump card since the season ended, taking the opportunity to sign for inflated wages with clubs able to tie up deals early.

The Gills made their first signing of the summer last week, bringing in defender Will Wright from Dagenham & Redbridge.

Harris might need as many as 14 more players before the start of the season and those deals are likely to be easier to put together as the weeks go by.

Speaking on Tuesday, Harris said: “We are in for other players at the moment. I have seen a player a day since Saturday and that will continue over the next couple of days. We are looking at moving the squad on a little quicker than we have been.

“For me, silly season is just coming to an end, that is my terminology for it, where agents just make numbers up. Players and managers, myself included, have been on holiday but I look at silly season ending when the school holidays end.

“The kids in Kent, London and Essex went back Monday/Tuesday time and that is when things settle down a bit. We now have a two-and-a-half-week period where deals will get done before the market becomes a manager’s market.

“Most teams go back (to pre-season training) between June 20 and 24 and when players see their ex-team-mates and their friends training, that is panic time for players and agents.

“At the moment it has been silly season where agents call the shots, not a period I like at all, but now it is sensible business time and then it becomes a buyer’s market.”

Harris has numerous deals on the go, he’s missed out on a couple of players, but they aren’t short of targets. With Gillingham dropping into League 2, they have been a focus for agents who had hoped to cash in on a decent-sized team for the level.

“Silly season is really where people just guess,” said the manager. “Agents look at a club like us, for example. They will look and think we are quite a big club in League 2 and say ‘oh, they will have a good budget’ and they put over a player who might suit the division but on astronomical wage demands.

“I might quite like the player but the demands could be absolutely ridiculous. We go back for a counter offer and they laugh you off the park, that goes on for a bit and it is a frustrating time for a manager because I try and look at both sides of the spectrum.

“First and foremost I promised everyone attached to this football club that Neil Harris will only sign players that will suit Neil Harris and Gillingham Football Club on our terms.

“Players will only play for me that want to play for this football club.

“If I feel I am getting pushed around by somebody or an agent, it won’t happen, they will only come on our terms. Yes, you have to bargain and haggle and do deals, but ultimately if a player really wants to come and play for me then I will sign that player.

“If it becomes about pounds, pennies and whatever, then don’t come. Silly season is about that and now it becomes really methodical and players make decisions for the right reasons.”

Harris would have liked 20 players reporting for pre-season on June 22 but that’s unlikely. The signing of Wright and a deal for youth player Bailey Akehurst took the tally of professionals contracted at the club to nine.

“I know full well I will not have my group of 20 organised on June 22, that is for sure,” Harris said. “I would like them by July 30 but that might be unlikely because of the loan market, but I have got my head around that.

“I am at peace with that, but I would like to add a few more before the lads are back in on June 22.”