Chris Kinnear’s biggest rebuild at Dover is a challenge the manager and his staff are relishing.

Whites will start the National League season with a squad almost entirely different to the one which narrowly missed out on the play-offs last term.

But despite the upheaval, there’s a determination from within the changing room to mould another side capable of competing.

Dover assistant Jake Leberl said: "It is a big challenge but when we first came in, we inherited a side at Christmas which wasn’t the type of players Chris would generally go for.

"He managed to get them in the play-offs and then a lot of the lads we’d like to have kept went off to Ebbsfleet.

"We’re used to rebuilding. It’s not as if this is a new thing.

"We’ve generally lost our better players every season to Football League clubs but virtually everyone’s gone (this summer) for different reasons.

"It’s probably the biggest rebuilding we’ve had to do but it certainly doesn’t faze us – in fact, it’s quite exciting.

"Chris’ experience makes the transition so much easier. He knows what he looks for in a player and we’re competing against a lot of clubs for these players.

"I’m not going to say we’ve got our No.1 targets in every area but we’re happy with what we’ve picked up and just need to pick up a few more."

Leberl feels the transfer market is busier than ever this year.

He said: "It’s ridiculous. It’s a national league and lads are prepared to relocate all over the country to play.

"A lot of the southern teams are paying big money and the lads don’t have to travel.

"For us at Dover, it always has been and it is difficult to get players.

"We’re not hiding from the fact we’re still a few players short. We’re hoping to get a bit of experience before the season starts.

"We haven’t really had that since we’ve been here if I’m honest. We’ve generally had lads who are relatively young, lads who are not massively experienced.

"Someone like Connor Essam is 24 but he’s played a lot of games.

"We could do with a few lads, it doesn’t have to mean they’re 34, just that they’ve had a lot of experience to add in difficult situations as the season goes to help stabilise everything.

"We’re still short in the midfield area and defensively we’d like another one."