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John Still has revealed why he didn't offer Michael Phillips a new deal as Maidstone prepare to face their reigning player-of-the-year.
Phillips said he would take a pay cut to stay at the Gallagher Stadium but head of football Still decided against trying to keep him.
The midfielder, who had a trial with AFC Fylde, went on to join Wealdstone and is set to face his former employers this Saturday when United visit Grosvenor Vale.
Still said: "You know what, he wanted to go originally when we spoke to him at the end of the season and that was the key to me.
"If he'd said then he wanted to stay it might have been different but I thought it wasn't the right thing to do, given he originally wanted to go.
"He was looking to stay higher."
Maidstone travel to north west London on a high after maximum points over the bank holiday weekend.
Back-to-back wins over Concord and Chelmsford stretched their unbeaten run to five games and moved them up to eighth in National League South.
They're improving all the time and are out to keep their good run going, with a trip to Dulwich Hamlet to follow on Tuesday night.
Still said: "We're improving as we go along and we've got to keep doing that.
"I'm sure there will be days where we don't play as well as we did against Chelmsford but that doesn't mean to say we can't win.
"I look back at my career and my teams don't normally start that quick.
"We do an incredible amount of work in pre-season and that might be why we're not at our sharpest to start with but the sharpness comes as you get going.
"It's a long season and you've got to prepare for a long season. You've got to be fit and strong and we are."
This week marked the first anniversary of Jay Saunders' departure as Maidstone manager.
Still picked up the pieces in January after Harry Wheeler's four-month reign and immediately said the club needed rebuilding.
He said: "I just think we've started again. We're putting bricks in place and we're making sure they're solid before we go on to the next step.
"We're a way from where we feel we can be, I believe, but how quickly we can put those bricks in place determines how quickly we can start rising."
Confidence is high after Monday's 4-1 win over Chelmsford but the City goal is a reminder they have to stay switched on in games.
Still said: "We must pay attention to small detail.
"They scored from a throw when we weren't ready and I'm massive on things like that.
"I say in training when the ball's dead you've got to be alive but we switched off for the goal."
