THE failure to move unwanted players out of the club is proving an expensive problem for Gillingham manager Mark Stimson.

He’s struggling to offload a number of players who he feels are not needed and until that happens he admits his ambitious plans have to remain in check.

“Financially it kills you,” he said. “You come in and you have to change things around and that’s the reason I got the job.

"I got it because Gillingham weren’t in the top half and flying, but because they were in the bottom half and hadn’t won away from home and weren’t going in the right direction.

“After several weeks in the job you get to finally look at the financial side of it and realise what size contracts players are on, and for how long, then that big problem hits you.

“What do you do and how do you get rid of them? You try and get them out on loan and then when they refuse to go out on loan that’s when it becomes a problem.

“There are players at the club on fantastic deals who are costing the club quite a bit of money every week and I have to take that into consideration.

“There are four or five players on two year deals who really aren’t going to figure in what I want to do and take the club forward. That’s happened and we have to deal with it.”

One player suffering as a result is on-loan midfielder Craig Rocastle who looks certain to return to Port Vale at the end of his loan spell.

Stimson said: “We want to try and cut this wage bill, because it’s too much and if we can’t get rid of players who are on contracts and for them to go out on loan, then unfortunately someone like Rocastle will have to go back because we can’t carry everybody.”