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Andy Hessenthaler set to address some of the Gillingham players who are nearing the end of their contracts

Gillingham manager Andy Hessenthaler admits that contract talks have taken a back-seat as the club find their feet on the field.

Gills manager Andy Hessenthaler
Gills manager Andy Hessenthaler

With results on the up, Hessenthaler will start to address the contract situation among his own players, which sees over half of the current squad on deals that expire in the summer.

Players such as Andy Barcham, Josh Gowling, Adebayo Akinfenwa, Chris Palmer and Curtis Weston will all be free agents at the end of the season unless the Gills tie up new deals.

It’s something Hessenthaler is well aware of.

Speaking ahead of this weekend, he said: "We know who is out of contract and who isn’t and we don’t want anything to disrupt what we are trying to do to turn things around.

"Contract talks will start maybe in the next few weeks, who knows, but I haven’t spoken to the chairman about that and we are just trying to concentrate on the games ahead.

"I’m sure the players will want to know where their future is in the next month or so, because they can talk to other clubs now, because they are out of contract at the end of the season.

"There will be certain situations where we start sitting down and talking about players that we feel we may want to keep or we won’t sit down with players until the end of the season.

"I think the players just want to get on with the work at the moment and well see what happens from there."

One player Hessenthaler will be looking to get on contract will be Joe Martin, who signed on non-contract terms recently, but while the player is injured nothing is likely to happen.

"At the moment we are staying as we are and I think Joe understands that," said the Gills boss.

"We’ve seen enough of him and we like him but the finances are a bit tight at the moment. Let’s get him fit again and back playing and then we’ll sit down with him and perhaps do a deal with him. I would like to.

"We’ll wait and see. Let’s get him fit first."

Who would you like to see offered a new deal with the Gills? Comment below.

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