Daryl McMahon admits any one of eight players could be Ebbsfleet captain this season.

Tom Bonner’s departure to Dartford means Fleet need a new skipper in 2016-17 and there are plenty of candidates for the vacancy.

Danny Kedwell wore the armband in Bonner’s absence last season but won’t necessarily be his permanent successor.

McMahon said: "I had a meeting in Portugal with eight senior players and any of the eight could be captain.

"I’ve got an idea who it’s going to be already but we’ve got plenty of leaders and that’s important.

"Keds is a talisman. He’s unbelievably reliable, he doesn’t miss a day unless you take him out, like I did on Sunday and he’s infectious, how he works.

"He played the most minutes and trained the most minutes last year. For me, last season and coming into this pre-season, he has been terrific.

"I’ve not had an ounce of issues or problems with him at all. He’s been a joy to manage.

"But Mark Phillips, Dave Winfield, Kenny Clark, Stuey Lewis, Dean Rancey, Nathan Ashmore, Aaron McLean and Charlie Sheringham can all be leaders in the group.

"The captain should be irrelevant in a sense. It’s an important thing for me to have a link to the changing-room and with one person it makes it easier, but in terms of on the pitch, you should be a leader.

"I’ve got a plan that I’ll put to the players before every match but it might not work after five minutes and you’ve got to change it.

"The players have got to be clever enough straight away and I’ve got to put them in enough scenarios on the training ground and in pre-season games to know ‘we’ve seen this before’ so they can adapt to certain situations."