Gillingham players return this week for their pre-season testing before training starts in earnest next week. Ahead of what will be his sixth pre-season at Priestfield, KSN has been talking to midfielder Robbie McKenzie.

With the new fixtures released on Thursday morning, we caught up with the Gillingham midfielder at the end of his summer break and he told us, “The summer has been good. It’s been nice to see the family as much as possible, and I have tried to do stuff that you can’t do during the season which has been nice.” 

“Without having to worry about a contract it was nice going into the summer as it was good knowing where I was going to be next season and it took the stress off and out of things a little bit.”

“I could enjoy the summer and knew I was coming back to Priestfield at the end of it. There have been a lot of runs on your own, and on the treadmill – it can get tough at times on your own, but it’s something that has had to be done, but it comes with the job.”

“The Club give us guidelines on stuff that they want us to hit each week whilst we’re off – everyone knows what they need to get done.” 

“We’re back in this week and find out whether we have hit them or not when we get the results in the first few days.”

“So, some might not be looking forward to that,” McKenzie said laughing, adding “At least it gets it out of the way so that we can get onto the football side of things next week!” 

“Sometimes pre-season can be very tough as you are just slogging it out and trying to get as fit as possible as quickly as possible – it can be tough, but when you’re in a group of lads and everyone is in the same boat and everyone pulls each other through it. It’s good for the team as it builds the morale.” 

“It’s still early days in the transfer window; I do expect that there will be some more activity, but it seems to have gone well, and we’ll see what happens next.”

“Any additions or departures we will wish them all the best and we all want what is best for the Club. Last season was tough as you do get used to the way managers work, but personally I found it OK as I was doing fairly well, trying to stay as consistent as possible throughout it all.”

“It’s like a learning curve really as every manager has his own way of doing things and you can take little bits from each one and implement them into your own game.” 

“The Gaffer (Gareth Ainsworth) came in and was really positive from day one, and I think all the lads bought into what he wanted to do.”

“It was just the positivity that he bought into the Club; every day in training positive and it was just a good environment to be in and good environment to work with and hopefully it will continue, and we can look up the table rather than down in the new season.” 

“The expectation that is around at the minute I think comes from Brad and Shannon’s (Galinson) spending money and people knowing that Gillingham has money.”

“But it really isn’t about that at the end of the day as you have to get the right squad, get the right atmosphere in the Club and I feel that we have that, so hopefully we will start pushing up the table!” 

“The fans have been and are brilliant! Even last year, home and away, they were brilliant. We do appreciate them all and we do see it so it can’t go un-noted.”

“And the reaction to the new kit was amazing – a real hit, wasn’t it? The fans really have bought into them as well as their season tickets so hopefully we’ll have a positive start!” 

“All the players I think will have a different favourite when it comes to the new kits – all three of them are really nice and I think the Club has done a good job on them!”