With another three weeks before the new season EFL fixtures are due to be announced, KSN has been to MEMS Priestfield to talk to Gillingham Managing Director Joe Comper about all things Gills.

In the first part of our conversation, we looked back on last season and a season that could yet be remembered in years to come… 

“As I look back on last season, I think ultimately it was disappointing!” Comper admitted as we sat in the Players’ Lounge.

“We hoped for more, we expected more, but it’s gone, and we must look ahead! The one thing that I do look back and I feel that the Club is in a better position as a whole at the end of it as opposed to the start of it, then yes, I do in terms of processes that we have in place.”

“Some of the issues that we had been inherited – a few mistakes over the past previous years that had carried on. So I think we are in a better place and stronger for it having spent a year putting things in place around recruitment and how we linked departments like sports science – we have done a lot of work on a lot of different things, and I think and certainly hope, that when we look back on last season in the future, everyone will admit that it was a hard year, but one we had to go through to get to where we want to be!” 

Going through four managers in a nine-month season was a challenge and Comper conceded, “One of the mistakes we have made in the past is hoping that a manager will take the Club forward.”

“And we have relied heavily on the manager to implement success whereas actually it needs to be deep rooted within the Club as the Club needs to give the manager a pattern to lead it rather than for hoping that a manager is going to take the Club into that new level.”

“And that was one of the reasons that we put John Coleman into the position when we did as I felt that the issues that Steve Clemence had had were then carried on and they were the same issues that Mark Bonner inherited!”

“And if we had appointed another manager at that time, they would have inherited it as well. So that was always the conversation with John that there would be a short-term agreement whilst the Club worked out a few things, mainly a vision, a plan creating a DNA.”

“People have heard us talking a lot about a two-year plan and that has been put together by saying, number one, what do we want to be; what does a Gillingham team want to look like and how’s it going to be successful?”

“So, if that’s the end game, what do we need to do to get there? What players have we got in the building that fit that criteria?” 

“We looked at the contract situation and we believe in two year’s time that we should have a team that looks like exactly like that!”

“This year we should have one that looks very close to it – I’m not going to sit here at the start of June and say that I’m dismissing year one of the two years as of course we hope to do well in year one, but we expect to do well in year two, as by that point if we deliver the plan in year one, by the time we reach year two we will have a team that looks exactly like what we expect!” 

Comper then praised Coleman for “righting the Priestfield ship”. “I think that’s exactly what he did, and I’m happy to put my name to it as that’s what I told the Gallinson’s as we should not jump into another long term project when Mark (Bonner) left, let’s have a short term appointment, which we made clear to everybody.”

“It wasn’t something we hid; John knew he could have been in the running if we did well and we decided he fitted the plan and wanted to stay, but at that time it was a short-term plan.”

“And I feel that a lot of the turmoil and a lot of the pain that we have suffered this year, hopefully in five or ten years time when we look back on it and admit that it was worth it!!!” 

“I think what John did was to steady the ship and he put out a team that I think got us back to basics and working hard – he started the process of us looking more like a Gillingham team than we had done before.”

“I think a lot of the fans recognised that and saw it. I am convinced that it started away at Walsall when they were riding high – we drew the game; everyone recognised that that was a Gillingham team and a Gillingham performance, and I think that carried on and I think that John deserves full credit for steadying the ship and getting us on the right path and exactly what we hoped for.”

“By the time that Gareth (Ainsworth) then came in, the Club and the team was in a better position than it was when Mark Bonner left and that was important!” 

Picture supplied by Gillingham Football Club.