Gillingham have opened contract negotiations with five players that could leave the club for free this summer.

Captain Max Ehmer, midfielders Regan Charles-Cook and Henry Woods, and forwards Brandon Hanlan and Mikael Mandron will all see their current deals expire at the end of June, but manager Steve Evans wants them to stay, and discussions are underway about new contracts.

A waiting game

Gillingham released their retained list back on June 11, and, due to uncertainty surrounding the future because of the coronavirus pandemic, it was confirmed no contract offers had been made:

“The club will make a final decision regarding any proposed contract offers following a board meeting on June 19 or the date that the commencement of the 20/21 season is formally announced by the EFL”, read a club statement.

Evans did, however, confirm a few days later on the club website that the five players aforementioned would have deals of sorts offered to them eventually.

“They have not been offered a contract, but they have been told that a contract offer, of whatever description, will be going to them”, he said.

“The reason for the slight delay in that is because the chairman is still working on the numbers.”

Negotiations

The five players are now being spoken to in regards to new deals.

Speaking to KentOnline on Wednesday, Evans said:

“We have not got a date yet to restart, but there are already formal offers out there and [we are] talking around it. The process started on Monday.

“I had a brilliant meeting with the chairman on Friday [June 19] and for part of Saturday, and we went through some key bits. We then had them in to talk individually.

“We would be very foolish to throw sums of money about when we do not know when we are starting, but the conversations around packages and agreements are starting, and that will progress quite quickly.”

It has already been confirmed that midfielders Mark Byrne, Ouss Cisse and Ben Pringle will be released, whilst it was confirmed on Thursday that youngster TJ Bramble has left the club.

Good with money

As with any new contract, agent fees have to be paid. Gillingham, though, have been proved to be smart in that area.

Clubs are required to provide FIFA and FA with the information on a yearly basis, and the latest figures state the Gills spent £28,089 on intermediary and agent fees between February 1 2019 and January 31 2020 - £1 more than the £28,088 spent by the club the previous year.

It is the fourth-lowest sum in League One, behind Bolton Wanderers (£0), Rochdale (£15,390) and Wycombe Wanderers (£25,868).

At the other end of the charts, Sunderland have recorded a staggering £1.346million.