“He’s coming home!” The words of Mark Bonner as Gillingham confirmed what the manager described as the worst kept secret in football – Bradley Dack is a Gillingham player again. 

Dack played over one hundred and fifty times for the Gills before his big money move to Blackburn Rovers in the summer of 2017, but major injuries to both knees dogged his progress and Dack left Ewood Park in the summer of 2023 and had a season at Sunderland before being released last summer. 

Talking about the return of Dack to Kent, an excited Gills boss told KSN, “It’s excellent to have him back here as the intent of our transfer business this year is to try and get matchwinners in the team; goals; experience in some sense, but to get a player of really good pedigree, who is really well known to supporters here – maybe not the younger ones, but a lot of supporters here.” 

“There is a romance about the signing because he is coming home in that sense, which is nice, but it is the reason to do it, as the reason is that he can help us win football matches, no question.”

“We know that he has had injury problems in the past and he has had issues, but the agreement has been made that is great on all sides.” 

“We know in the time that it is going to get him fit that we get him ready and understanding what our team looks like, as when he is fit and available, he will give us a hell of an option to win games at this level.”

“And as we keep trying to build a team that can out score teams and win games, he will be really, really a big part of that firstly, and I think he will make players around him better and I think he will have the humility to know what a Gillingham team looks like and what it takes to get promotion and things like that and he will want another one on his CV.”

“Hopefully he can come and help us achieve what we all want to do.” 

“There is always an excitement within supporters about “returning heroes” and I understand that. There will be some who think the last few years have been tough for him in terms of games played and there is an element of risk to that!”

“I assure you we are protected against those risks and secondly, it is a risk worth taking because if he did not have those problems, he would not be coming here and he would not be coming back and he would not be playing at this level.”

“He is a player who on his day could be massive for us at the level and I think if you start to think about the probably very unlikely scenario of everyone at the top end of the pitch being available at one time, we have got some match winning options up there which is exciting, gives us a chance to become the team that we want to become and Brad can be a big part of that.”

“I think he can drive standards up – he can be a leader; I think he can show what good looks like because he has played at the higher level for a while now.”

“We’ve a few that have got that experience and that pedigree and they can make a huge difference to your team, and we want a real senior feel to our team in terms of having players in the group who know what it takes to win repeatedly and get the best out of yourself for forty-six games in a season or whatever that might be.”

“You then need the energy and legs around that to make your winning football team and I think he can really help us with that.” 

“There is a few boxes to tick. There is the physical one – what can we get out of him, how can we get him going, how can fit can we get him and how many games can we get him available for.”

“And then the second side of it is, is there a hunger there that is still burning, and I’m not sure that there are many other clubs at this level who would have gotten him to play for them.”

“When I look in his eyes, I see someone who is desperate to win and desperate to be here, and desperate to make sure that it is not a come home, end of your career, sign off nicely!”

“He has come to make a difference and be a success – that is really important because we want drive, desire, and ambition, but we also want the personality that it takes, and I think we have all those things.”

“So, I am really excited to see us somewhere down the line and with him in our team, with the others around him as I think he can create chances and score goals at this level, no question and be a really big player for us throughout the season.”

“He will need a bit of time – it is going to be four to six weeks before we see him impacting the team. He going to being working hard to get ready, but we know that in four to six weeks down the line, we hope him, Elliott Nevitt, Josh Andrews, and Ethan Coleman will all be like new signings for us at that point.”

“If we can be in a good position at that point and chip away and get some good results it will really strengthen our squad, and we are really excited about that…”