Gillingham boss Steve Evans is keeping an open mind about the club captaincy.

Gabriel Zakuani skippered Gillingham last year but the captain’s armband was handed over to Max Ehmer following his season-ending injury in February.

Ehmer has made no secret of his desire to continue being captain and he’s got a good chance, says boss Evans.

“I think our chairman is in absolute love with Max Ehmer,” joked the manager.

“He (Max) says he wants it and quite right, so does Gaby and I am sure two or three others who have been here and probably five coming in will want it.

“They way we do it we will have different people captaining the side pre-season.

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“If we think Max is deserving of representing us then he will get the captaincy. I have had two or three chats with him, he is a real good guy, he is very competitive. We know his strengths but the captaincy is something we will look at.

“It will be about the influence in and around the group and so far Max and Gaby have done good jobs.

“When we went to Mansfield we kept the same captain because Krystian Pearce deserved to be captain in our opinion, at Leeds we kept the captain in Sol Bamba. It is just what you find, when they come in we will see.”

Ehmer, speaking at the end of the season, said: “Of course I would like to keep it, although that is not a decision for me.”

Evans hasn’t worked with any of the Gillingham players who he inherited following Steve Lovell’s departure.

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He’s already told three of them they won’t be in his plans, as he looks to strengthen the middle of the park, but he’s not ruling anyone out of his squad, including the youngsters.

He said: “Sometimes you can watch games and think, ‘they are not for me’, but it is different when they play for you.

“I went into Rotherham and there was a young boy in the reserves called Ben Pringle. People at the club were telling me he wasn’t good enough and he was slow.

“We played a training ground game and he was magnificent, he had the most wonderful season. He was exceptional for us.

“You go in and it doesn’t matter whether they earn £1 a week or £10,000 when you start working with them in training, you treat them equal.

“Some people respond to you as a manager and a coach and come to the fore having maybe been written off before and some might not be at the races when you put more quality around them.”

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