Phil Parkinson was ready to jump on to football's close season merry-go-round today following the news that striker Scott McGleish has agreed to sign a new contract.

The Colchester United boss said: "I'm so pleased Scotty's decided to stay with us.

"His decision obviously influences what type of new front-runner we now bring in.

"We've got to have the right balance."

Parkinson and his coaching staff have been scouring the Professional Footballers' Association's list of available players over the past four days in their bid to ferret out the five or six new faces they will be seeking to bring in.

"It's fair to say we already have several irons in the fire, but I'm not going to say anything else until the players concerned have actually signed. I'm not prepared to reel off a list of 20 or so players we might be interested in only for none of them to come up trumps for us.

"We've thrown our hat into the ring. Now we must wait for those players we are interested in to weigh-up their options."

Current League contracts run-out on June 30.

Meanwhile, McGeish is the last of the six out-of-contract U's stars Scott Fitzgerald, Alan White, Joe Keith, Richard McKinney and Pat Baldwin to sign new deals.

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Published Friday, June 6, 2003

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