Midfielders Dean Parrett and Josh Rees have both turned down offers to leave Gillingham.

Gills boss Steve Evans has made it clear that neither player will feature in his plans this season.

But both players rejected potential moves away from Priestfield at the weekend, no doubt keen to make sure they make the right move.

“They’ve both turned down offers away,” revealed Gillingham manager Steve Evans. “We’ll see if other offers come in.

“It’s always the lad’s prerogative. They’ll be treated with the utmost respect here, they’re just not going to figure in the team going forward.

“One player had two offers to stay in the Football League, one had an option to go non-league.”

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When asked if Evans was surprised that the duo have decided not to take up the offers, he replied: “I’m never surprised in football. If you’re inexperienced then you get surprised but if you wake up and see a £200m transfer it wouldn’t surprise you these days.

“It doesn’t surprise you when you see what goes on.

“We chatted to those lads when we first came in and (told them) our thoughts.

“They’re good lads, good professionals and they are well capable of being big players for other teams.

“But we’ve got things that we want to do and sometimes it’s about options and how you want to go forward.”

Former Tottenham man Parrett joined the Gills last summer from AFC Wimbledon while Rees made the switch from National League Bromley after an excellent goalscoring record at Hayes Lane in 2017/18.

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