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Simon Royce has returned to the Gills as their new goalkeeping coach.
Royce, now 47, was a popular keeper during his playing days at Priestfield between 2007 and 2010.
He played over 100 games for Gillingham having joined from QPR.
Boss Steve Evans has made it clear he sees a goalkeeping coach as a key area of his backroom team and was keen to make a full-time appointment.
The Gills haven’t had a full-time goalkeeping coach since Glen Johnson was at the club. He left a year ago.
Having helped the Gills to promotion in League 2, as part of the play-off winning team at Wembley, Royce eventually left to pursue a career in coaching, starting at Brentford.
His playing career had started back at Southend, where he made close to 150 league appearances, before taking in clubs such as Charlton, Leicester and Brighton, predominantly as a back-up.
Royce went onto QPR, where he made over 50 league appearances, before joining the Gills, initially on loan, making the move permanent for the start of the 2007/08 season.
Over a decade later and he’s back to coach the Gillingham goalkeepers.
Evans has so far added former Brentford keeper Jack Bonham to their ranks - a goalkeeper who will be well accustomed to Royce having worked with him at Griffin Park for several years.
Gills boss Evans has said he is still pursuing another keeper but is keen to see what England youth international Joe Walsh has to offer, having signed a pro deal this summer.
Evans said: “I’ve interviewed a number of very qualified goalkeeper coaches over the last few weeks and it would be fair to say the outstanding candidate was indeed Simon.
“Obviously Gills fans will be aware of him for his time with the club, and his playing career.
"Simon had an excellent spell working under Dean Smith, at Brentford, and following my conversations with Dean it became clear in my mind that this was the ideal man to become part of the background team as we lead the Gills into the new season.”
