Former Leyton Orient, Charlton, QPR and Ipswich striker Macauley Bonne in training at Gillingham
15:32, 03 August 2023
Gillingham have confirmed striker Macauley Bonne is in training with them.
The Gills are keep to bolster their forward line and Bonne could be an option but on Thursday, during the pre-match press briefing, manager Neil Harris said new additions before the weekend weren’t likely.
Zimbabwe international Bonne, 27, was spotted at Gillingham’s open training session on Monday - prompting fans to change his Wikipedia page and joking the deal was “brokered in the famous Queen’s Head pub, located half way up or half way down Maidstone Road.”
Manager Harris says no deal has been struck but confirmed he was training with the club.
Harris said: “It’s the same (situation) as Scott Malone really. Macaulay has come in for a few days, for us to look at him, for him to look at us.
“As always, I am open-minded to things.
“He is a nice lad, he wanted to come in and work with me for a bit. We will see what progressed with that.”
Malone recently signed a deal at Gillingham after he too came to the club initially just to train, with Championship clubs showing an interest.
Gillingham remain light in numbers upfront with Oli Hawkins remaining out and unavailable for the trip to Stockport this weekend.
Charlton released Bonne this summer after joining them in January, the second time he’s been at the club. He scored two goals in his eight appearances for the Addicks.
Bonne started last season at Championship side QPR but was made available for loan. He had been with the R’s since October 2020 but most of his appearances came off the bench.
He had a productive loan spell with Ipswich in the 2021/22 season, where he netted a flurry of goals in the first half of the campaign. He also netted at Priestfield in a 4-0 win for Town at Gillingham that season.
Bonne scored goals for QPR in Championship during the 2020/21 season after a decent first spell with Charlton, which saw him score regularly for them in the second-tier.
Prior to that the Ipswich-born striker had two successful seasons at Leyton Orient, having started out with his hometown club as a junior before moving to Colchester United, where he was promoted to the first team under Joe Dunne’s watch.
The Gills signed striker Ashley Nadesan last week from Crawley Town, leaving the attacking department much stronger, but more additions are still to come.
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