Football Season Guide

Dover impressed hugely last season when they reached the play-offs against all expectations, playing a rather efficient and unorthodox brand of football that proved difficult for opponents to cope with. Chris Kinnear managed to superbly squeeze all out of a decent but unspectacular squad and went quite close to actually knocking out Forest Green in the play-offs. But the vultures have come circling during the summer and the Whites lost some of their best payers as a result. The superb Nicky Deverdics is back north with Hartlepool while Stefan Payne earned a move to the Championship with Barnsley after his last couple of prolific years. The loss of players like Liam Bellamy and Tom Murphy weakens the squad as well and it is difficult to see the Kent side doing as well as they did last year. Kinnear will still organise the well and will surely add to the paltry two signings that have been made so far. Jim Stevenson is a good addition in midfield and can have the sort of impact that Deverdics enjoyed last season. Steven Arnold is also a good signing on goal and can definitely challenge Mitch Walker, having been a regular with a side like Forest Green. Yet Payne leaves a big hole in attack which has not been filled yet and the defence could be struggling this year too. At least one signing is needed there to have more options and the manager should be busy heading into the first weeks of the season.