Gillingham’s American owners are on a fifth permanent manager since their December 2022 takeover but remain as determined as ever to succeed.

Neil Harris, Stephen Clemence, Mark Bonner and John Coleman have all come and gone since Brad and Shannon Galinson rescued the Gills from almost certain relegation from the Football League.

The Galinsons and their financial investment secured immediate success as they put their relegation worries behind them, but achieving success at the other end of the table hasn’t been so easy.

Harris and Bonner both flirted with life at the top end of the League 2 table for a while but couldn’t sustain it. Now it’s down to Gareth Ainsworth to see if he can make a difference.

Co-owner Shannon Galinson has been the figurehead at the club in recent months, while husband Brad has been home in the US, dealing with their other business commitments.

Speaking to the media on Thursday, Mrs Galinson said: “The fact of the matter is there have been some expensive mistakes but they haven't been deal breakers for us.

“Brad and I remain committed to doing this. We went into this eyes pretty wide open.

“We didn't think that we'd be living the high-life and taking big dividends out of our club.

“We were really interested in this project that was Gillingham and wanted to roll our sleeves up, get our hands dirty and be involved.

“It's cost us a little bit of money but we're still here, we're going nowhere.

“It would have been nice for it to be a little bit less expensive but so be it. We're here and we're here for the long run.”

Mrs Galinson hopes their latest management pick finally brings them some rewards on the pitch.

Gareth Ainsworth and assistant Richard Dobson come in with nine games of the season remaining, taking over a team 19th in the table.

Ainsworth comes in to replace John Coleman, who was thanked for his efforts and left on good terms.

“It's been a whirlwind but exciting,” Mrs Galinson said, after another hectic week at the club.

“We were purposeful in making this change at this time, so although the week was a whirlwind, and some of the timeline we weren't in complete control of, we knew definitively it was our aim to give the permanent new management team as many games as we could to give them their own pre-season, if you will, to start to assess the squad, assess the staff, assess everything.

“We were grateful to John and Jimmy (Bell) for righting our ship for a certain period of time.

“We know we needed a little bit of a reset and a change, but once we knew we were pretty comfortable, I know not statistically perfect, as has been explained to me and re-explained to me, but once we had a comfort level, we decided to pivot towards, ‘okay, we need to start interviewing’.

“Gareth and Richard had already bobbled to the top for us. When we determined we might be able to get them, and get them in sooner rather than later, we acted. Hence the crazy week.

“What really intrigued me when I met the two of them last year is that both Richard and Gareth talk a lot about culture.

“One of my first tasks when I got here was to look at this club's culture. Assess, reassess, see where we needed adjustments, see what was working, see what wasn't.

“When we sat down together they were speaking the same language of culture, just in the context of the football squad. I thought, ‘ooh, I'm intrigued by these guys’. Culture is big for me. “

Speaking about helping to run the club, Mrs Galinson said: “It's been amazing. I feel like this new chapter has been a huge gift for me.

“When we got involved I actually wasn't completely sure what my level of involvement would be.

“I brought to it experience in organisational structure, company culture, marketing, which I'd love to actually just do marketing, but it turns out there's not enough time for me to just do that.

“I've been able to bring those various skills and I love it, that's the truth of it.”

Asked if she would have done anything different, Mrs Galinson said: “I'm a big believer that you don't grow and you don't get better unless you make mistakes. I would do all of it again the same way because in every scenario we've learned.

“It turns out that you can't learn this from any books, you can't learn this from documentaries you might watch, you can't even learn it from people who are with you in it. You have to experience it.”