Gillingham boss Steve Evans has revealed the club narrowly missed out on signing 35-year-old central defender Luke Chambers earlier this summer, in an interview with Kent Online.

Chambers, who spent nine seasons at Ipswich and was ever-present in the Tractor Boys' defence with nearly 400 club appearances to his name, was released last month and opted to join Colchester United last week on a two-year deal.

However, the centre back also conducted discussions with Steve Evans with the view to a potential move to the Gills. On Chambers, Evans said: "I met Luke Chambers several times, I think he’d have been really good for us.

"He chose Colchester for a variance of reasons and the one thing about Luke, we were dead straight with each other all the way down the line.

"I was straight about finance, he knew what we put to him there couldn’t be any movement in it.

"He opened himself up to us and to others who could produce better finance and therefore he had different options, not just Colchester."

However, Evans believes Chambers decided to drop down a league instead of signing for Gillingham for another reason as well, with the U's being much closer to Ipswich than the Gills and the probable desire for the 35-year-old to stay closer to home.

With the prospect of enticing the defender to the League One side firmly over, the Gillingham boss is now moving on to other targets and wants three or four new additions by the end of the week. According to the 58-year-old, he has already met around 20 players so far this summer so this is no real surprise.

The Verdict:

Despite entering the final few years of his professional football career, Chambers made 39 appearances for the Tractor Boys last season so it's not a shock to see Colchester offer him a two-year deal. He will be a great asset for the U's to have in the fourth tier.

With his experience and leadership skills, this news will come as a blow to Gillingham fans. But despite former Luton Town and Hearts midfielder Olly Lee being the Gills' only signing of the summer so far, Evans is evidently working hard behind the scenes and if they can get a few more players in by the end of the week, it will stand them in good stead going into the 2021/21 campaign.

And if they can recruit another centre back similar to Chambers' experience and calibre, the Gills have the potential to build on last season's 10th place finish, with Evans' side finishing seven points behind sixth place.