Manager Jake Leberl is hoping to avoid a complete rebuild at relegated Dover.

Leberl, who’s already been confirmed as boss for next season, wants to keep a good number of the current squad.

That might be easier said than done if players have designs on staying at National League South level.

But that’s the plan for Leberl as he prepares to lead Whites into their first Isthmian Premier campaign in 15 years.

“I’d like to keep hold of quite a few of the squad and build the spine around them,” said Leberl, whose side ended the season with a 3-1 home defeat by champions Yeovil on Saturday.

“That’s going to prove hard because the lads might be trying their hardest to stay at National South level, which I understand.

“But they also need to be realistic, especially the younger boys, because they need to be playing to get more experience rather than going somewhere and being a squad player.

“It’s a balancing act for everyone.

“I’d want to keep about half the squad, roughly.

“A lot of work has gone into these players in the past few months.

“We only have them two hours a week and we’ve started putting things in place with them, so it would be a shame to lose the ones we’d like to keep.”

Dover finished bottom of the table, winning only four of their 46 games.

It’s their second relegation in three years but the table doesn’t paint the full picture.

Leberl returned as assistant manager to Mitch Brundle in November before taking over a fortnight later.

He said: “I’m relieved the season’s over but once I got my head around the situation I actually quite enjoyed it.

“The longer I was in, I realised we just didn’t have enough within the squad to get the results we needed.

“I tried hard to bring lads in but found it almost impossible because no one wanted to come to a club that’s struggling.

“But we did all right, believe it or not. We stayed in games and we had opportunities to score.

“We generally played with three up front, so it wasn’t as if we were sitting behind the ball and defending the whole game.

“We had a go at teams, we just lacked a bit of balance.

“We gave away a lot of goals from set-pieces and we didn’t take our chances.

“But although the points total looks very bleak, we’ve been in a lot of games. We lost 10 games 1-0.

“If I’m brutally honest, we haven’t had a No.9 or a No.5.

“If you haven’t got a centre-forward who can hold it up and bring others into play and score goals and you haven’t got a big, dominant centre-half, you’re going to struggle.

“I wanted to give everyone the benefit of the doubt when I came in because they’d picked up a lot of draws.

“We started all right and then we let in a last-minute goal from a set-piece at Aveley over Christmas.

“I look back and think that was the turning point.”

The heady days of reaching the National League play-offs look a long way off and may never happen again.

But with the right players, Leberl believes Dover can find their way back to National League South.

It might take more than one season, with the top end of the Isthmian Premier seemingly awash with cash.

“There’s loads of money in that league,” said Leberl.

“Hornchurch, I know they’ve got promoted, but they’ve got boys on £1,000 a week.

“For us, it all depends on recruitment.

“If I’m brutally honest, National South is probably the ceiling for a club like Dover, with all the money that’s in the National League.

“Look at Dorking and how much money they’ve got and they’ve been relegated and it was probably a step too far for Boreham Wood, who are also coming down.

“I think our natural level, with the size and support of the club, would be National South and I’d like to think we can get back there at some stage.”

Luke Baptiste marked his 100th Dover appearance by scoring an injury-time consolation against Yeovil, a game that saw academy player Matty Holness make his debut.

John Oyenuga was named player-of-the-year, with George Nikaj collecting the away player award.