Gills boss reflects on pre-season training and looks ahead to Saturday's game at Chatham.
Steve Evans says his players are "in good shape" following the first week of pre-season training.
The Gills players returned to MEMS Priestfield Stadium on Monday and have been put through their paces both at Beechings and inside the gym at ME7.
The manager is pleased with the overall condition of his squad and is hoping to add a few new faces shortly.
Speaking to the club website he said: “There is a series of testing today [Friday], we’ve been in since Monday. We’ve had a mixture of running drills, lots of the ball and they’re in good shape.
"Hopefully we have added to the group by Tuesday/Wednesday. Double sessions, and then we’ll go to Welling. That will be the first-team, but two teams of 45 minutes, completely mixed.
“Then we go to Dartford and then we start to get serious, hopefully we have a squad in place when QPR, Peterborough and Colchester approach. Really tough games for us."
He, and the Chairman, are working hard on player negotiations and the boss revealed a couple of deals are close.
He added: “We are working hard, the Chairman is working immensely hard to help us. We have a couple of goalkeepers and are very close with one; I don’t know if I would regard him as a one or a two, but he will be a goalkeeper that competes for the shirt.
“Four or five others would take us to 18. We were light last year and apart from a couple of weeks at one point it gave us a problem, but apart from that we got through well."
As for the game at Chatham on Saturday (3pm), Steve told the fans what sort of team to expect. He added:
“It will be a young team; Craig Stone will take the match. I will be talking to two players so I won't personally be there but Paul Raynor and the rest of the first-team staff will be there. Our recent young professionals, Gerald and Harvey will be in the group; they’ll play a part and we’ll have a couple of trialists from overseas.
“It’s a great place to go; it’s a great facility, have a few beers and stay to watch England in the evening!"
The full video interview can be seen on iFollow.