The Chester City midfielder and central defender Paul Butler have returned to the club for pre-season training after a dispute towards the end of the last campaign which saw the pair accused of breaching club discipline.

The Wallsend-born player and Butler have now patched up their differences with the Blues and have signed 12 month extensions to their contracts.

Dinning said: "The new signings at the club mean that there is now plenty of options for the manager when the new season starts.

"Some people may think we now have too many midfield players, but the gaffer has created healthy competition for places and he's got options for the systems he wants to play.

"The gaffer now knows he'll have players on the bench who will be champing at the bit to get on, and at the moment he's got a squad of players who are working hard to earn a shirt for the opening game.

"I think we relied too heavily on one player to score our goals last season - big John (John Murphy), even if Kevin Ellison, Richie Partridge, and I scored the odd goal.

"Hopefully, by having a range of players battling for midfield places we can see the side creating more chances which should see us scoring more goals.

"We've got players in our squad who are capable of scoring, and we now have more attack-minded players which should be interesting."

Dinning, 33, began his career at Newcastle United where he failed to make an appearance. He then moved to Stockport County in 1994, where he spent a successful six years before moving to Wolves for £700,000.

A year later he moved to Wigan Athletic for £750,000 but he failed to settle, having spells on loan at Stoke, Walsall, Blackpool, Ipswich and finally Bristol City, whom he eventually joined on a free transfer.

Things failed to work out at Ashton Gate and Dinning moved to Port Vale on loan at the end of the 2004/05 season, and joined Vale the following summer.

In May 2006, he agreed a deal to re-join former club Stockport County, where he played more than half of his 450 career games, but his contract was cancelled by mutual consent due to a lack of first team opportunities.

Dinning joined Chester in October 2007 and scored twice in 20 appearances for the Blues last term.

He added: "Pre-season training has been good and structured, but we must realise as a squad that we have to maintain our form after a good start and finish strongly.

"Everybody at the club, like elsewhere at this stage of the year, is trying to impress the gaffer and win a place in the starting line-up for the opening day of the season.

"I've just been trying to get my own work done and if I manage to get a shirt for the first match then I'll be very happy."