Ebbsfleet boss Dennis Kutrieb wasn’t surprised to see midfielder Christian N’Guessan move into the Football League.

The 24-year-old completed a move to League 2 Sutton United last week after turning down a new deal at Stonebridge Road.

He’s the only player to reject a new deal among the National League South title-winning squad, a decision Kutrieb was expecting.

“It’s disappointing on one hand but on the other hand I’m looking forward for him,” said the Fleet boss.

“He wanted to progress, he wanted to progress last year but it didn’t work out for him so he decided to stay one more year with us. He was always open and honest, we always had honest chats, so for me it was not a surprise as he always wanted to get back to the League.

“A small part makes me proud as well to say that we produced a League player, it puts our club in the right light to say they can jump from us to a League club so that’s something positive.

“Of course, we wanted to keep him for the next season but I was never in a position to say I was really counting on him. He came from nowhere and we made him into such a good player that he can go to a League club and he should play an important role.

“They have a plan with him, I can’t imagine he would leave for just making the squad, I think they’ve told him that he’s a massive part of their plans as a holding midfielder. I was aware that there was just a small chance he would stay. He played two good years with us and is now a League player.”

With so many factors to take into account, Kutrieb didn’t want to say how far the talented N’Guessan could progress. But he’s expecting him to continue to develop his game.

“He's still a young player and he will improve year by year if you work with him,” added Kutrieb.

“If you don’t work with him then he won’t improve, but we worked hard with him and he improved massively.

“If he had stayed with us one more year he would be even better because we could see his progress and he’s not at the end of his progress. I would love to make him even better next year but he decided to take the chance in the League.

“I think there’s still a lot of room to improve for him, and he knows it, but he is still young.

“He is a confidence player and he needs confidence but if he has that and is the main man playing every game then I wouldn’t be concerned about him as a player as he gets better and better.

“He’s not lazy, he won’t think he’s arrived somewhere, he wants to get better and that’s an important thing.”

The Fleet players return to pre-season training on Saturday with testing at the top of their agenda.

It’s an important five weeks ahead as they prepare for National League football.

“The five weeks of pre-season are very important, it’s not just one week,” said Kutrieb.

“I’m not a fan of putting something in one day or one week, it’s a timeframe, similar to when I say (judge us) after 10 games or at Christmas time.

“You’ve known me long enough, I’m not too bothered about one week or one game, I’m bothered about the big picture. To be competitive in the season we need to have a good five weeks.

“We start with testing so we can see if everyone has done their homework, that’s the first part.

“Then we go pretty quick to get into the hard pre-season work on a daily basis to make sure the most important things are working - our basic behaviour, what we want to achieve together as a goal, the main points we want to achieve in pre-season.

“We’ll work on fitness levels to get as fit as we can because it’s a very demanding league. I think apart from one or two teams everyone is full-time so we need to have really good levels.”