Gillingham chairman Paul Scally believes the investment in the first team squad is appropriate to the club’s income.

Mr Scally spoke about the club’s playing budget during a video interview with the club, in which he produced the The SCNP Benchmark Report, a document that is circulate to all EFL clubs to show the kinds of sums spent compared to their rivals.

The chairman remains on the lookout for investors but is keen to keep the books balanced while also remaining competitive. It’s a tough challenge.

Speaking ahead of their visit to League 1 giants Sheffield Wednesday, Mr Scally said: “What is interesting is that in terms of player budget, there are people out there who think we aren’t investing much in the team, there has been a lot of talk about that with fans over the last few months. We are number 18 in League 1 in terms of our actual spend.

“We are in the third sector of six in terms of overall player expenditure and in so far as players’ actual weekly basis salaries are concerned we are actually number 14 out of 24 clubs.”

The wage figure doesn’t include under-21 players or those out on loan. Gillingham have a small squad with the manager choosing to bring in quality over quantity.

Mr Scally added: “We are by no means in the bottom four or the bottom quarter, we are not in the top half, but we are in the right place appropriate to our turnover. That is quite important.

“Much has been said over the past few months about budgets and players and numbers and this and that and the fact remains we are there amongst the right place for size of club and turnover that we are.

“The football League know what the salaries are of each club and expenditure. This allows us to see what the average is for the division. It allows everyone to know, for benchmarking purposes, where we are as oppose to other teams and it is quite interesting.

“Of course you can play about with numbers and say, ‘yes but you have more players than us and therefore the average will be higher’, of course, but the facts are the facts, they are based on the information they have in the Football League which is the best information you can possibly get.”

Mr Scally would like to extend numbers on the club board, saying: “This job has become too big for one person, it probably was too big for one person some time ago.

“I quite like the idea of having five or six people on the board and people with experience and expertise and people who can open doors that I can’t open because of their contacts, people with specialist knowledge on certain things, which might be education, catering, sale and marketing, conference and banqueting. We are now at the stage where i have to talk to people about potentially joining the board and take the club on a journey that is better than it is currently on.”