Anthony Cook's departure from Ebbsfleet United this week came as a surprise to many of the club's supporters - but not to the winger himself.

Cook became the fifth player to leave the PHB Stadium in the space of three days when his contract was cancelled by mutual consent on Thursday.

His exit comes amid a personnel clearout by new Fleet manager Jamie Day, who has already signed eight new players - mostly from Football League clubs - since taking over five weeks ago.

Cook polarised opinion at times but he was hugely popular with a lot of Fleet fans, who showered the 25-year-old with farewell messages on Twitter.

A simple conversation with Day told Cook he had reached the end of the road at Ebbsfleet.

He said: "The gaffer told me I could stay and fight for my place but he couldn’t guarantee me minutes. If you’re sitting around, you’re killing time. I’m not young anymore and I need to continue playing.

"New management have come in and they want to do things a different way, so I’m not really surprised to be honest.

"It can have an impact on any player (when there's a change of manager). You have to get on with your job – and I don’t think I’ve been terrible since Browny’s gone. I think I’ve been alright and I’ve done what I’ve been asked.

"I had a conversation with Jamie and he said he didn’t see me in his first XI. He was bringing players in and I was given the option of going out on loan. But when you’re told you’re not in someone’s plans, I’m 25 now and I need to play every week.

"I asked if I could look elsewhere to give myself a better opportunity of continuing my career.

"I didn’t want to leave Ebbsfleet because I had the best time of my football career there.

"But I didn’t feel like I could sit around and not be involved. It would be easy to sit around, getting paid, but that’s not me, it’s not in my character. I want to be involved, playing games.

"Football makes me happy and when I’m not happy with football, I might not be happy in life. When I lose, my weekend is ruined and if I wasn’t going to play, that would have ruined it as well."

Cook, on his day, was unstoppable last season. His exhilarating wing play terrorised full-backs and saw him voted player-of-the-year by the Fleet supporters.

But those displays had become all too scarce this season.

"I felt I could have done a lot better," Cook admitted. "I’d like to have scored more goals – I only got six this season – but I had 11 assists, so I created a lot of chances. I think I did OK.

"Last season, I got a lot more of the ball and that meant I could have a bigger effect on games. This season, things have been different.

"People have come to Ebbsfleet, like Basingstoke and Chelmsford, and played five at the back. People know what they’re doing and they knew how to nullify our attack. If they got a goal in front, it was hard for us to break them down."

He added: "Jamie Day’s a winner. He wants to win. The way things are done is very different for different managers. We didn’t have a disagreement or a falling-out, I just had to make a move for my career.

"Things do change when new management come in and players have got to make decisions.

"I’m gutted to be leaving the club but I’m happy with what I did there."