Gillingham boss Steve Evans will be making full use of the loan system again next season and he’s already ahead of the game.

Prior to the season being cut-short Evans had been clocking up the miles in an effort to see as many young footballers as he could, with a view to the 2020/21 campaign.

Last season the Gills benefited from the likes of Southampton pair Alfie Jones and Tom O’Connor, Watford striker Alex Jakubiak and Hearts midfielder Olly Lee.

They also had Wolves’ Jordan Graham and Jordan Roberts from Ipswich Town in the second half of the season, having signed them in the January transfer window.

More loanees are sure to arrive at Priestfield this summer and Evans has done his homework.

He said: “Our incredible strength has been contacts in the loan market, people we know and we have therefore been able to get the most outstanding loan deals, in terms of contributions in paying for those lads, probably in the Football League. It comes because you know the people at the other end of the phone.

“We will look at that again absolutely. We have to go into the loan market, we have to find the type of players we want.

“We are lucky that we got to so many under-23 games before Christmas and then before lockdown. I think the chairman was sick of me sending him pictures of different grounds, watching these games.”

Evans has already been reeling off a list of potential recruits to the Gills chairman Paul Scally.

The Gills boss said: “Paul Raynor (the Gills assistant) named two or three under-21/23s that had been put to as possible loans and I could say I had seen them. I could go through it with the chairman and he just said, ‘you are a footballholic.’

“That is what got us Alfie Jones, because I had seen him at St Mirren and that is what got us Tommy. Everyone knew Olly Lee from his time at Luton and I knew him from when I was at Crawley.

“We don’t want to be signing players we haven’t seen and who we don’t know. Hopefully all the hard work prior to lockdown kicks in when it comes to looking at loan options.”

It won’t be just loan players Evans will be bringing in, however, and he had already had conversations with potential new recruits.

“We know we can improve this group and we know how much,” said the manager.

“With the improvement we can make we can be a play-off team.

“We might have gone close (in the 2019/20 season), just failed, but some games I look back and shake my head. Two or three I really shake my head given how the group was and how we could play.”

The Gills ended the season 10th on points per game.

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