Ebbsfleet have completed the permanent signing of a defender – who first appeared for the club on loan eight years ago.

Centre-back Louis John joins from Sutton United, having had his contract cancelled by mutual consent at Gander Green Lane.

The 30-year-old made 283 appearances across nine years at Sutton and is back at Stonebridge Road having featured twice in November 2016 for the Fleet in a brief loan spell.

“I remember coming in back then, it was quite early on in my career,” John told FleetTV. “The club was going places and wanted to get further up. I enjoyed my time, it was short, but I’m glad to be back.

“I was at Sutton for a long time, I was there for nine seasons in total and we achieved a lot in that period of time. It was a good time there but I feel like now’s the best time for me to have a fresh start and hopefully we can achieve similar things here.

“I feel like I’m a leader and can set an example from the back and help the younger players.”

John, who started his career at Sutton and has also had spells with Crawley and Cambridge United, played 21 times in 2023/24 but missed much of the second half of the campaign following an injury.

He won National League South and the National League during his time with Sutton, helping them to League 2 and also playing in the EFL Trophy final at Wembley, where they lost to Rotherham after extra-time.

Sutton joins fellow new recruits Lewis Page and Jim Kellermann in switching to Ebbsfleet this summer with manager Danny Searle’s recruitment clearly focusing on players with National League experience to bolster his squad.