League One news: Manager of Sunderland's rivals labels own club's recruitment as a 'shambles'

Gillingham appointed the former Millwall and Cardiff City boss as their new manager in January after Steve Evans departed.

The Gills are currently 21st in League One and in the relegation zone after losing against Charlton Athletic on Tuesday evening.

Sunderland are set to face Harris’ side at the beginning of April with the Gills boss already lamenting the club’s lack of clear recruitment just a couple of months into the job.

He told the Kent Messenger: “Getting a head of recruitment in is just as important as getting points at the moment.

“We haven’t got the bodies and the recruitment at the club has been a shambles, the conditioning of the players isn’t good enough and ultimately it falls on me to get the best out of the players we have got.

“We will be down to probably nine senior players (for the weekend). No disrespect to Charlie Kelman and Tom Dickson-Peters but they are not senior players, they are players who have come into help us and are doing a great job for me, it is where we are at the moment.

“We have too many injuries and that falls back on recruitment and the players that have been signed. (It’s about the) age of a player, injury record, references on players, ability to be able to repetitively train and play, it is something moving forward that has got to be addressed.

“From what I understand it can go all the way back to pre-season where they didn’t have a full pre-season because of Covid but then maybe training standards before I got here.

“It is just recruitment. You have to box clever. I have never run a football club and had injuries anything like this because I signed the right players at the right ages at the right condition.”

“I can’t control today, but moving forward as a football club that is part of the big project.”

When asked about appointing a head of recruitment Harris added: “Something needs to be done immediately.”

A message from the Football Clubs Editor

Our aim is to provide you with the best, most up-to-date and most informative Sunderland AFC coverage 365 days a year.

This depth of coverage costs, so to help us maintain the high-quality reporting that you are used to, please consider taking out a subscription to our new sports-only package here.

Your support is much appreciated. Richard Mennear, Football Clubs Editor