Hessenthaler was looking to build a squad for promotion.

Andy Hessenthaler spoke this morning of wanting to build a team for promotion next season, only to leave this afternoon.

Departed Gillingham boss Andy Hessenthaler was today looking forward to the challenges ahead at the football club, only to leave this afternoon.

A statement from the club at 5.30pm said he had left by mutual consent after talks with chairman Paul Scally, while this morning at 11am he talked to KOS Media about how he would be busy looking to strengthen the club over the summer for a promotion challenge next season.

Last week he spent time in Seville in Spain where he was looking at signing players for the coming season.

“There are players out there, but again its making sure you get the right ones,” he said.

“Once we get this week out of the way about who’s going and staying, my job will be on the phone talking to agents and managers about who we can get in.

“My job really starts now, its been a long season, but it doesn’t stop we have to work through the summer, and to build again.”

In terms of where he said the club would be recruiting from he joked: “We go to Spain now, we get our players from Spain, we have widened our net all over the place, but honestly if I gave you my phone about how many agents phone me you’d be amazed.

“We look at every club, I went to Spain just for the tournament last week for a couple of days, to have a look at young players.

“There are a couple available, a forward and defender we could bring in to have a good look at, if they turn out to be anything like Paulo we could have a couple of gems there.

“There’s loads of players out there, but we want the right ones.

Every manager is looking to get the right ones, we can’t sign players willy nilly, what I don’t want to do is put players on longer deals and it doesn’t work out.

“It’s too easy for players then, we have got to sign players and keep them on their toes, we need hungry [players next season, that are going to kick us on, that;s my job to find these hungry players.”

On the subject of how the season had gone, and where things can change for next year he said: “Hopefully next year we can make a few changes, change the mentality, get a bit of lady luck along the way which is what you need and get what we are all striving to do which is to get out of the division.

“We have got to do something different, we have got to change the philosophy the way we play, and we have got to be mentally stronger.

“We conceded far too many goals, if we conceded 20 less we would be out of this division, we have been entertaining but disappointing defensively as a group which is something we need to sit down and look at.

“Are we getting the right people, the right characters? That’s the sort of stuff we have got to look at in the training over the summer.

“I think the young ones have come in and done very well, I think ultimately what hasn’t really helped us is we haven’t been settled in the back five.

“Ross (Flitney) has been injured, how many people have played right back, we can go through them all, left back, centre half, it goes on.

“We have never really had anything settled in that back area.

“Our forwards we can say have done their job this year, but defensively we haven’t, the balance of the squad is quite good, we have just got to add to it.

“We achieved more points this year believe it or not, we got 70 points and still couldn’t make it, it’s two more than last year,” he said.

“It feels the same, we are disappointed we missed out, it wasn’t through the lack of trying you can look at the whys and wherefores, but if you do that you start beating yourself up.”

Although the club has suffered a horrendous number of injuries throughout the season he doesn’t want that to be the talking point.

“We talked about the injuries it certainly hasn’t helped us, I have never seen to the level we had last year,” he said.

“We analyse that as a management team and medical team, are we doing the right things? There are a lot, you can’t legislate for Barry Fuller, Adam Birchall, Gary Richards, what can you do with those type of injuries.

“We have had a lot of injuries that have kept key players out. You can’t harp on about that, we have not delivered what we said we would.

“It is two years now, it’s a thin line.”

On the subject of the clubs finances, he said: “We have still got to balance it, the club has got to be run properly, clubs that do that and overspend, and they let their club down, going into administration. Is the punishment enough? I would say not.

“He (chairman Paul Scally) runs it properly, that’s why we won’t overspend, but keep it where it should be and the budget we worked to last season we should have got promotion, we didn’t achieve what we should have achieved.

“If we go over it, we need to balance it, but we don’t want to go into that, it would put the club into jeopardy, and we don’t want that.”

“We have got a nucleus of a very good squad, we have got to pick and choose very carefully who we bring in, the budget dictates that as well.

“Last year we went over a bit but we recouped on Luke Rooney. Sitting down with the chairman we have got to do that, we have got to look at that and pick and choose very carefully.”