National League South title triumph proves faith in Ebbsfleet United boss Dennis Kutrieb was justified, says proud chief executive Damian Irvine

Chief executive Damian Irvine has led the tributes to Ebbsfleet’s title-winning manager Dennis Kutrieb.

It’s only the fifth league title in their history and the first time they’ve won National League South having twice been promoted via the play-offs.

The 43-year-old German arrived as an unknown to Fleet fans to replace Kevin Watson at the end of the 2019/20 season.

It’s been a tough journey at times, with Covid restrictions hardly helping Kutrieb’s transition to his new surroundings, and there’s been doubters from across non-league football that his style and methods would never work.

But his classy squad have run away with the title in the second half of the season and - after three years in charge - Kutrieb has justified the faith shown in him by Irvine and Fleet owner Dr Abdulla Al-Humaidi.

“I’m extremely proud of him, and proud of Dr Abdulla who made that decision to look elsewhere when it was tough,” said Irvine.

“It wasn’t a case of anyone not really working here, it was that the club needed a direction, it needed a brief and a character that we were going to build on going forward.

“So, I looked high and low, all across Europe for the type of person that the brief said we needed. The process was thorough but even I, standing here now, couldn’t have dreamt that it would have found exactly what we’re looking for.

“In such tough circumstances, Dennis has learnt here. You only had to read early on, everyone had a reason why he couldn’t do it, why it couldn’t work - ‘you can’t play this sort of football, it’s impossible at this level, the pitches won’t let you do it, you don’t know the leagues, where have you come from in German lower leagues’ - a lot of doubters.

“All that’s done every day, and I’ve seen him, and us