Boss Ryan Maxwell believes Sittingbourne have come out on top after selling Joe Ellul to Ramsgate.

Bourne sold their captain to Rams for an undisclosed fee, just weeks after announcing he had signed a new two-year contract.

In a statement, the Brickies said Ellul had been offered a double-your-money deal at Southwood, although this is disputed by the Thanet club, whose manager Ben Smith branded the claim “absurd”.

Sittingbourne have replaced Ellul with Faversham centre-back Darren Phillips, a man Maxwell says will prove to be the better player.

“We got the better part of the deal,” said Maxwell.

“We got money for a 34-year-old and we’ve brought in a player 10 years younger who will be better than Joe.

“Darren is someone I was after before he went to Faversham. I’ve known him for a while.

“He was attracting interest from Step 2 clubs before he went to Faversham.

“He knows he shouldn’t have gone there for the reasons he did, which were financial, and it didn’t work out.

“He’d been flying at Heybridge Swifts - he scored seven goals in a month, which is fantastic for a centre-half - and I’m delighted to get him in.

“He’s only 24 and, under me, he’ll be better than Joe next season when it comes to a head-to-head - he’ll turn out to be the better player.

“We’ve used the Joe money to get other players in and so from my point of view and the club’s point of view, it’s a great bit of business.

“I wouldn’t have let it happen unless I knew I had Darren up my sleeve.

“Ultimately, Joe was under agreement here and we had to receive a fee for him or he was going nowhere.”

Sittingbourne have been busy in the transfer market.

As well as signing Phillips, they’ve added attacker Cruise Nyadzayo and midfielder Jamarie Brissett to their ranks.

Maxwell briefly worked with Nyadzayo during his time as Braintree manager.

He said: “He’s a powerful, exciting player who scores difficult goals - eye-catching goals - and possesses great skill. He’ll be a real handful.

“He had a little taste of Conference North at Lowestoft many moons ago and is still in his mid-20s, so his best years are ahead of him.

“He’s a player I brought in at Braintree but at the time we were overloaded and he just needed to play.

“He went to Sudbury and did well and he always said he’d like to play under our management, and now he’s got the opportunity.

“He’s moved to the area, or not far from it, and I’m looking forward to seeing what he does.

“He’s a player who gets bums off seats.”

Brissett arrives at Sittingbourne after helping Beckenham reach the Isthmian South East play-offs in their first season up.

Maxwell said: “He’s a very energetic midfield player who played exceptionally well against us in the away game at Beckenham.

“It was a really eye-catching performance and people spoke highly of him.

“We were in contact but it had to be his decision to come, and he wanted to come.

“He wants to see what improvements he can make.

“He wants to try and better himself as a player and we’ve promised to push him to the absolute ends of his capabilities.

“He fits my DNA and he’s been asking the right questions in terms of what he can do in the off-season to gain an advantage.

“That’s what every manager wants to hear and, to be honest, that’s the environment we’ve got here.

“That’s kind of why he signed.

“We’ve got Glen Warwick, who’s a professional strength and conditioning coach, and he’s really important at the minute because he’s the one who’s setting up the players’ off-season programme.”

Further recruits are on the way, Maxwell hopes, including a “seriously significant signing, someone with a few promotions on his CV”.

Meanwhile, Bagasan Graham, Correy Davidson and Mitchell May have joined Donvieve Jones and Toch Singh in staying on board for next season.