With the final game of the season looming large at the weekend, we ask what next for The Gills?

Stephen Clemence will see his team take to the pitch at Priestfield on Saturday knowing his side have no chance of making the play-offs, but opponents Doncaster Rovers could well be in the mix for a top seven finish.

For many Gillingham fans, the 2023/24 campaign will be one of much promise, but flattered to deceive and won’t probably live that long in the memory.

The purchase of the club in January 2023 by the Galinson family offered so much hope and with the side pulling themselves up from their boot straps and avoiding relegation at the end of the campaign, fans could be forgiven for thinking the summer was going to be a bumper one with lots of new signings.

In the end, under the stewardship of manager Neil Harris, ably supported by Kenny Jackett and Andy Hessenthaler, few quality signings made their way through the Priestfield door and going into the new season, some fans were questioning whether the squad were capable of gaining promotion.

However, a great start to the season saw The Gills being the early pace setters and everyone around the club felt with the investment both on and off the pitch, this could finally be the turning point and the club could be headed back to the third tier of English football.

What then happened in the next eight months or so is a mystery. Players that should be more than capable of playing at this level looked non league at best, goals were proving hard to come by, under Harris the side looked like they were playing for stalemates or boring the opposition into submission and the fans started to be disillusioned with what they were seeing.

Harris was eventually shown the door in October with some fans questioning whether it was the right decision as The Gills were still very much in the play-off mix at that stage.

The appointment of Clemence at the start of November raised a few eyebrows as he came to Priestfield with no managerial experience, but plenty of coaching ability and with a decent playing career behind him.

Given time, Clemence set out his position and his philosophy of playing, but in truth, he just didn’t have the players at his disposal that fitted in with his way of setting up a side.

Going through the busy Christmas period saw The Gills get a real mixed bag of results. One week they looked like the best team in the league and then the following week they looked disinterested and might not be a match for the local pub side.

Getting consistency from the squad was a challenge and the January transfer window again offered so much hope to Gills fans who expected an influx of players that would not only bolster the squad, but would raise the standards and see the side challenge for a top three finish.

Instead, they got a few late signings, not exactly setting the world alight, although Jorge Hurtado looked a masterstroke of a loan signing, only for the livewire to get injured and never to be seen again.

Signing Josh Andrews looks to be a really good bit of business, but signing him whilst injured and then having both Tom Nichols and Macauley Bonne leave left Clemence with very few attacking options.

That heralded a spell of playing 4-5-1 and with that the results fluctuated even more than before with the side losing games they should have won.

These past few weeks have really summed up Gillingham’s season with draws and defeats when wins were a must.

Many fans have rightly questioned the commitment of some of the squad and Clemence has hinted that he wanted more from the January transfer window and wants even more changes throughout the summer.

Will there be wholesale changes though? Clemence has some tough decisions over the coming weeks as to who will be on his retained list. There can’t be too many players going into this weekend knowing they will be at Gillingham next season.

One man that does know he will be there is Clemence himself with Brad Galinson already having stated that the Head Coach is the right man for the job and he will be pinning his hopes on him, at least for the time being.

Football is a very fickle business, even at the best of times and Clemence will know he needs a good summer, bringing in players of quality, but also passion.

The likes of Mansfield Town and Stockport County have shown Gillingham what the blueprint for success is and a club of this size needs to be investing in the right way and not just throwing good money after bad in a bid to secure promotion.

When Gillingham were at their best in the early noughties, there was a plan, a structure, a philosophy, local players wanted to join the club and the fans bought into that vision.

Under the Galinson family, a lot of that belief has returned, but even they will know they will be judged on results, much like Paul Scally will be in the fullness of time.

Off the field, Scally’s influence is questioned daily by a not so silent majority and the sooner it’s cleared up as to what his role still is at the club, the better for many fans.

Improvements around the ground and a better standard of matchday experience have certainly helped, but there is still a very long way to go for the not so die hards to engage with the club once again.

Working with the community and making Saturday afternoon a trip to the football at Priestfield has to be a must going forward. Too many fans can take it or leave it in recent seasons and for the club to really succeed in the long run, local people need to feel valued and buy into the vision of where the club are going and how they are going to get there.

Too often and for too long, Gillingham fans have been treated as just customers and a commodity, overlooked and let down. This has got to stop if the club are to get back to the Championship – surely the aim in the next five to ten years.

Looking over their shoulder, Gillingham have only got to see the likes of Bromley and Maidstone United aspire to be Football League clubs and even the likes of Chatham Town are offering a great matchday experience for the fraction of the price.

Where the club goes from here is anyone’s guess and lady luck will always have her say, but fans want change in the right direction and many will trudge their way to Priestfield on the weekend asking where did this season go wrong?

Picture supplied by Gillingham Football Club.