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Gills in pole position to sign Maher

Mark Stimson hopes to persuade Kevin Maher to join the Gills

By David Pritchard

KEVIN Maher trained with Gillingham following his release by Southend United this week, putting the League Two club in pole position to capture the midfielder’s signature.

The 31-year-old, who spent the last two months of the season on loan at Priestfield, had a session with Gills fitness coach Danny Ellis and 24 hours after leaving the Shrimpers.

Gills boss Mark Stimson played alongside Maher at Roots Hall a decade ago and has long been an admirer of the cultured midfielder.

A move to bring him to Priestfield on a permanent deal was ruled out earlier this month due to the player’s existing contract at Southend.

But once Maher was released the chances of a deal improved significantly and the club could beat a clutch of clubs by signing him as early as next week.

Stimson told Kent on Sunday: “Kevin got his bad news on Tuesday and the next day he trained with some of our players in a session with Danny. He’s gone away now for a few days to get his head right.

“He did a good session and when he comes back next week I will ask for half an hour of his time and we will put something across to him. I know League One clubs are interested in him and rightly so, but we will see what we can do.”

If Maher joins he will be the second addition to the squad after goalkeeper Alan Julian joined on a free transfer this week.

The 25-year-old became the fifth player to join from Stimson’s old club Stevenage Borough. His contract with the Conference club expires at the end of the month so he will join as a free agent.

Julian is a former Northern Ireland under-21 international and had attracted interest from several clubs. Championship side Southampton were linked with a move but Stimson believes their previous relationship at Stevenage was the key to Julian’s decision to join Gills.

Stimson said: “I think he knows who he is going to be working with. Simon Royce is a top goalkeeper who he can learn from, Alan is 25 which in goalkeeping terms is quite young. I just think the whole package was quite attractive to him.

“When I was at Stevenage there was a lot of interest in him and we turned down offers of £125,000 for him because he was so important to us, it’s a very good signing.”

The Gills boss is also making progress in his attempts to bring a striker to the club and held talks with an agent to an unnamed League One player last week. Stimson is looking for a player with physical presence to lead the line next season, but he denied the player in question was former Gills forward Bas Savage.

He said: “We did offer Bas a deal earlier in the season but he went to Millwall instead. We are not looking to bring him in. The player we are after fits the bill superbly, I hope to have an answer sooner rather than later.”