The clock is ticking for a trio of players who Gillingham have offered new deals to.

Euan Williams, Conor Masterson and Max Clark have been offered fresh contract terms, and at least one of them was expected to be signing up for next season.

Managing director Joe Comper has said the club are already looking at other options.

It’s almost three weeks since the club announced their retained and released list and the four players with expiring deals that they wanted to keep. Bradley Dack’s the only one that has so far been confirmed for 2024/25.

Mr Comper said on Friday that they were “hoping to have an update on at least one of those (other three) very soon” but the club aren’t going to wait around forever.

He said: “With a couple of them it’s a case of we’ve put our best foot forward, that’s our offer - we’d love them to stay, but now it’s up to them.

“There are lots of things that come into it, location, leagues, what other offers they might have out there.

“It is a bit of a waiting game, and while you’re waiting, you’re not just sat there pinning your hopes on them, you’re looking at what other options we have and what else is out there, so the clock ticks for both of us.”

Gillingham’s MD said he hoped to have updates on them all soon.

Speaking at the end of the season, boss Gareth Ainsworth has already said he won’t be hanging around if those offers aren’t good enough.

He said: “We're trying to get as many as we can over the line that I want and if not we'll have to go and get new ones and find fresh faces but I think that performances like (at Port Vale on the final day) will make the boys want to stay and believe in something that could potentially happen here in the future.”

Clark and Masterson started all nine games under Ainsworth at the end of the season while midfielder Williams made a handful of appearances after overcoming an injury.

Dack is one player who is keen to be part of a success story at the Gills following a frustrating first season back.

He was the first of the four to sign on, agreeing a new one-year deal.

“His main motivation was that he is desperate to do well here,” said Mr Comper.

“There was no talk of what he could get elsewhere - it was never that for him.

“He wants to play and succeed at Gillingham and that made it straightforward.

“I’m really pleaded we have someone of his character as well as his ability to be with us next year.”

Striker Seb Palmer-Houlden was the first new face through the door this summer, officially joining the club on Sunday when the 10-day early transfer window opened - introduced to work alongside the FIFA registration period that’s running ahead of the Club World Cup.

The main summer window runs from Monday, June 16 to Monday, September 1.

Palmer-Houlden was a player the Gills looked at in January but his loan deal with Scottish side Dundee complicated matters.

Mr Comper said Ainsworth fully backed the move.

He said: “It was a name we put to Gareth and (assistant boss) Dobbo and the work we had done, we’d watched him live multiple times and had character references and he worked with (youth boss) Joe Dunne at Newport.

“Gareth and Dobbo both came back with a resounding, ‘yes, this guy is great, go and make it happen’.”