Gillingham manager Neil Harris insists he is keeping an open mind when it comes to who he wants to keep in the summer.

Only a handful of Gills players remain contracted beyond the end of the current campaign.

Harris said: “I have not ruled anyone in or out, as we stand, I am really open minded with the players.

“I find it really difficult to make decisions about players at the moment because I am so proud of what they have given me, I feel privileged every day. I find it tough to not be fond of them because every day they are giving me everything. That is all I can ask.”

Now is certainly not the time for contract discussions. The club face a crunch weekend in their battle for survival with games against Cheltenham (on Friday) and Fleetwood (at home on Monday).

Harris said: “I want the players to focus on their job and I will focus on my job, which is preparing the team, recovering the team, preparing for the next one. The players need to do exactly the same.

“If we get to April 30, whatever the day is we know whatever league we will be in, that will be the time to sit with the payers and discuss with them about what they want to do and what my thoughts are. We can have a cup of tea and chew the fat with them.”

While Harris plots Gills’ safety this season, the wheels are already in motion to recruit for 2022/23. Recently appointed head of recruitment Nicky Shorey has been key to that.

For the manager, he is always on the lookout.

He said: “We have a lot of players out of contract and I am constantly reviewing and watching and come the end of the season I need to have more discussion with individuals.

“We will need new personnel in the summer because we have got a lot of players out of contract and a natural turnover of players when that happens is quite high.

“We will need x amount of players in during the summer and we have started already, reviewing our contract list and players we can cover to watch, gathering information from clubs, agents, contacts in the game that trust us and we trust them to feed back to where players are at, whether or not they will be at their clubs, let go or out on loan, then you spread out to watch games.

“I was at Portsmouth against Rotherham (on Tuesday night), Nicky was at a game, then over Easter we will be at matches. I don’t get to cover a lot of League 2 and Conference players but the beauty is League 2 finish after us and so does the National League.

“We are just trying to build a picture, building databases with names, salary expectations, players maybe on loan, whether they fit into short term loans or long term, maybe two years with a break, constantly reviewing it, that is how we look at it. Getting to see players live is the best way.”