New Gillingham boss Steve Evans has been talking to KSN about pre-season so far and where his squad stands as the countdown to SKYBet League One’s kick off on August 3rd.

In his first interview with us after Saturday’s 4-0 win at Folkestone, the Gills boss was candid about players he was still looking to bring into the club.

“We’re looking defensively left side and looking further forward down the left, and up top, we’re not just looking for one striker, we’d like to bring in a couple!”

“We’re where we thought we’d be in pre-season, although we would like to be a bit further forward but that will come in the next week with Dartford on Tuesday and then Charlton and Millwall at the weekend. There have been winners and losers on the fitness levels since the players have come back. Some came back in credit, whilst there were on the other side of the coin, you always get three or four who come back looking like they’ve had a good holiday!”

“In all fairness, they’ve worked hard for two weeks now – we’re getting them there looking at general fitness until we get up to the double header. When we come out of that and lead into the last games then we’ll be sharpening things right up. At the minute, we’re doing more of the training for marathon runners rather than sprinters.”

“We’ve got a bid on the table for a striker from a higher level that we should know the result of early in the week with thanks for the Chairman. It’s not hundreds of thousands but it’s an offer that we think we see the player at this period of time where if he does well, we do well, but we don’t know if that will be accepted. We’ll find out Monday hopefully – the Chief Executive has taken the offer and he’s going to discuss it with his board.”

“As a club, I don’t think that we’ve bought a player for a while and we’re talking to two or three others as well and I’ll be absolutely delighted if we can get all of them as it will make us really stronger. We’re still working very hard and the Chairman’s lost a lot of his holiday making calls etc., on behalf of us seeing what we can do…”

The new management team made changes to pre-season opposition including the “Double-Header” of Championship sides Charlton and Millwall visiting Priestfield next weekend.

“You need to look at some of the tournaments around the World and they do something similar playing two games in two days. The reason to do it,” the Gills boss explained, “is to give everyone in your squad ninety minutes at this stage of pre-season.”

“From our point of view, our plan is to get circa 450 to 500 minutes in the bank for every player which gives them an equal opportunity to get into the team. You have to be showing up against League sides as they’re the ninety minutes that tells everyone whether you’re going to have a part to play going into the season.”

“So the idea behind next weekend was to make sure that there’s not a player who can come to my office on the Monday before the first game and say to me “the boy in my position has had three ninety minutes and four forty-fives and I’ve only had three off the bench and sixty minutes!”

“The one thing that I pride myself on as a manager is that I treat everyone of those players as my son. How do I treat him? Sometimes hard, sometimes lovingly and with care, but I treat him with fairness and that’s the best thing. I have to look at everyone of the players and say you had a chance son; you had a chance!”

“We had to upgrade the quality they were going to face. We could turn up at Faversham, we could turn up at Folkestone and score four or five and be in kidology land – you’re not prepared and you’re not ready! Different managers do things different ways, but we’ve always had success by testing ourselves pre-season.”

“Pre-season with Steve Evans is at Priestfield next year (and I very much hope that I’m still here) as supporters will realise what a pre-season should be and see some real quality opposition come and test you. We know the weakness at Priestfield last year – we had it at London Road with Peterborough – and it’s hard to get away from but we need to be ready and that’s why we arranged the games with Charlton, Millwall and indeed Southend.”

“I’m going to be very proud walking down the touchline at Priestfield for the first time as boss – I’m living in Gillingham now and the people have been absolutely fantastic to me. I was a little bit worried when I first came in as you get told of some of the reaction.”

“But we had the forum and it seemed that those present took to me and it’s been the same elsewhere and it’s been great that people have taken to me because as I said when I came into Gillingham Football Club, it goes into my heart. I cannot come across a bad word about any of the Football Clubs I’ve managed as I’ve been proud to manage every one of them.”

“Gillingham Football Club is a Championship club – it’s a Championship on the outskirts of London and a major conurbation in Kent. Kent needs a Championship club and Gillingham needs a Championship club and all the spin offs that that brings to the community and people around it with jobs and infrastructure.”

“I’ve seen it at Peterborough when I was living there when Darren Ferguson took them into the Championship and I was envious when you saw people coming into the City playing the Newcastle’s and Leicester’s; and they’re the type of events that we want at Priestfield as they had under Tony Pulis!”