Gillingham chairman Paul Scally insists he is still looking for investment in the club having been in charge for the past 26 years.

With the club languishing in the League One bottom four, seemingly heading for relegation, a depleted, under strength squad, a lack of staff in behind the scenes roles and fans venting their anger at the club owner, things look bleak at Priestfield.

After Saturday’s game against Crewe Alexandra was postponed due to a Covid outbreak at the club and Boxing Day’s clash against Ipswich Town at Priestfield in some doubt, fans have been left to wonder if and when they will see their side play next.

For many, that is no longer an option with more and more Gillingham fans openly admitting they are no longer prepared to enter Priestfield all the time Scally remains in charge and have gone on to support their local non league side instead.

With attendances down, unrest at a high and disengagement palpable, Scally insists he is still looking for investment in the club and says in the past five years he’s been in talks with between 50 and 60 people, but many have turned out to be time wasters.

Despite this, Scally believes he is on the right path and even recently he’s been in talks with some people that might be able to help the club:

“I am talking to some genuine people now,” he told BBC Radio Kent.

“I just don’t get it, it’s a good club with great potential. It’s a club that’s been run within its means, it is a club that doesn’t have debt, or significant debt anyway.”

“It’s nothing to do with me saying I want money that isn’t achievable, because that’s just not the case despite what I’ve heard or been told and is written on a particular forum.”

“I am talking to some genuine people now,” he told BBC Radio Kent.

“I have a call today with somebody I went to see in Dubai two weeks ago, who I’ve been talking to for some considerable time.”

“I also have people based in England who are very credible people, football people, and we’re talking on a regular basis with them about a way forward and some kind of structure.”

“I am more hopeful that, strangely enough in these difficult times, there seems to be more interest in football clubs in general – and in Gillingham Football Club – for some.”

“I never say die, but it’s been a real challenge and as to why I haven’t been able to achieve it so far, I just don’t know.”

“It’s not through a lack of trying and if I went through all the files of people that I’ve been talking with, fans would be staggered.”

“There are many, many wannabes out there, many people from all around the world, from America, from the Far East, from the Middle East and some from the UK that all want to own a football club, but owning the football club and having the funds to run a football club and being credible people, that’s another point.”

“I have had two very good offers from Europe and from America where frankly they would not be able to run the football club, they would be the wrong people for the football club,” he said.

“I don’t want to go and sit on the beach somewhere thinking I’ve sold the club out short, a club I’ve believed in for 26 years and a club that I believe has got potential and can go on with the right people involved.”

“I have worked extremely hard to find the right people and I think you have to be very careful. There are a lot of bad investors coming into League One, League Two and into Championship clubs recently.”

“There have been clubs that have almost gone to the brink because of the investors that have been brought in, they haven’t been the right people, the right honourable people or have come in with the wrong intentions.”

“I probably have a call a week from somebody who wants to become involved in a club or wants to buy the club or wants to take it over, but I haven’t yet come across anyone who will come in and take the club over – unless I stay and run it for them, or with them.”

“I kind of understand as it’s not an easy business to run for someone who lives abroad or doesn’t have the time to come and devote to the club.”

When asked if Scally would walk away from Gillingham if the right offer came in, the chairman said:

“It’s been a part of my working life for 26 years, but I’ve always said publically and it’s no secret that I’d happily step down if the people that came along were the right people for the football club, that they’d take the club forward and not just rinse the club and leave it in a bad state.”

“I’ve said all along, I’m happy to stay and work with someone, I’m happy to work for someone, I’m happy to walk away and leave it for someone else to run the club, I’m happy to stay for a year or two to help someone settle in, I’m very relaxed on it, I don’t have a real issue.”

“What’s important for me is number one the club survives and number two, the club has a future, because otherwise, everything I’ve done in the past 26 years has been a waste of time.”

With that in mind, many fans calling for Scally to leave as part of the Scally Out campaign, will find it hard to reconcile the lack of investment over a quarter of a century and the potential the club has being the only Football League side in the county.

Where the club goes from here is anyone’s guess, but it’s certainly an unstable period in the club’s history.