Deal manager Steve King has taken on a new role at the club.

King, who first officially replaced Derek Hares at the helm in 2022, led the Hoops to a fine seventh-placed Isthmian South East finish in their inaugural campaign in the division.

As well as being first-team boss, the club revealed on Monday night that King will also become their director of football ahead of the 2025/26 season.

“Our main focus is always on the first team but, for us to continue to thrive at that level, we must ensure there is a continual flow of quality young players,” King said.

“I have been heavily involved in developing these systems over the last 10 years and look forward to continuing to work with the talented managers, coaches and players we have in our under-23s and youth teams.”

Club chair Natalie Benville added: “Steve has fully committed to what our beliefs and plans are at the club, and has done from the beginning.

“It’s the right progression as we expand with our new youth teams next season; it allows us to cement the foundations by bringing in a director of football. To achieve promotion in 2024 and to finish seventh in our first season at Step 4, that’s testament to the years of planning.

“Steve has been instrumental in that. Becoming our director of football is extremely well deserved.”

King has worked with many of the current youth-team players over many years and this has bore fruit with a number of products of the system, including Zak Hammond, Morgan Page, Owen Wilkinson, Kaeden Jeffreys, Kye Davison, Dan Gannon and Will Callaghan, representing the first team.

It marks another important development for the club which has an under-23s side and will have four youth teams in the 2025/26 Kent Youth League.