Gillingham’s new boss Gareth Ainsworth will target quality over quantity during the summer rebuild.

The Gills have around 30 outfield players in their first-team squad and that’s far too many for Ainsworth. He’ll get a chance to reshape the team with a majority out of contract at the end of the season, including some big earners.

Ainsworth will be looking to trim the numbers down and will use the final nine games of the season to decide which of the current crop he wants to keep hold of.

“We have too many players here,” Ainsworth said.

“I like working with small squads. I think we would slim the squad down slightly because that's the way I work.

“I believe that some of the problems start with so many people out of the (matchday) squad, never mind the team. I want to go quality over quantity.”

The Gills have had plenty of big-name players missing in recent weeks under former boss John Coleman.

Brad Dack, Aaron Rowe, Shad Ogie, Jack Nolan and Jayden Clarke have been missing of late while some of the fringe players have gone out on loan.

Striker Marcus Wyllie has joined Dagenham and back-up keeper Jake Turner has recently joined him there on a deal until the end of this season.

On having a smaller squad, Ainsworth added: “We sort of stumbled on it at Wycombe.

“It works well and there's a decent academy here as well.

“I'd rather have an academy kid dying to get on the bench than seven professionals sat in their stand, nowhere near the bench, and that's where the balance is.

“It's something we will work towards.

“We do sail close to the wind at times but we believe it's really healthy for the club.

“That's the culture that they all buy into and everyone's got each other's back, everyone works for each other and that seeps out into the community and the fans, that we've all got each other's back.

“If we all do that on a Saturday then the by-product is a good result and that's what we intend to get.”

Ainsworth will be at the forefront of the summer recruitment, he insists, but is happy for others to have their input too.

He said: “We're going to be involved in recruitment of course. We've got some great experience with Andy Hessenthaler and Ronnie Jepson (in the recruitment department).

“I actually made my league debut with Ronnie Jepson back in 91 so we go back a long way and Hess is obviously a club legend.

“I think it's important that everyone's involved. The more people the better for me.

“These are big decisions now for this football club and if there has been any criticism of (the recruitment) then I'll take that going forward because I'm going to be involved in that and Richard (Dobson, his assistant) will also be in there. We've got a great knowledge of players.”

Ainsworth’s taken on goalkeeper coach Deren Ibrahim and first-team coach Pete Gill but hopes to make some additions to the backroom, saying: “We need to definitely add. I think we've lost a few during the year. We'll be looking at some additions, definitely, but again the staff so far have been fantastic with me.

“I think they're all buying in. I think they're desperate for some journey to be put in place and become a part of and so far it's running smoothly.”