Colchester United head coach John McGreal says he would be happy to boost his squad with loan signings this summer if required.

The majority of the new arrivals at the U’s last season were permanent additions, with Tariqe Fosu, Rekeil Pyke and Glen Kamara their only loanees.

That quota was fewer than in recent years, where Colchester have historically relied on the loan market to bolster their squad.

But boss McGreal says there could still be temporary arrivals before the window closes, at the end of August.

McGreal said: “We’ll go out and use the loan market if we need to.

“We’re trying to build up relationships with the likes of Reading, who are a Cat One club.

“It’s good that they’re allowing players to come to us into division two.

“It can work both ways – developing relationships with big clubs but also getting good players in on loan from Cat One or Cat Two clubs.

“They can come in and rub shoulders with our players and our players can look at them and maybe feel they need to do a little bit more.”

One of the reasons for Colchester signing fewer loan players last season was due to the continued progression of their academy players to first-team level.

Despite the scrapping of the emergency loan window, the U’s were able to supplement their squad with the likes of Cameron James, Charley Edge and Diaz Wright who all made the step up to senior level.

McGreal said: “We’re looking at these younger boys to make the grade and step up.

“We want to promote our own and we’ve done that, especially last season.

“I think our academy players made more than 200 appearances for the first team last season which is fantastic for the club to still keep pushing for a play-off position with all of the injuries that we’ve had.”

Colchester’s players report for pre-season training tomorrow, with the club still yet to announce which of their remaining nine out-of-contract players they have retained for the 2017-18 campaign.

The future of the likes of George Elokobi, Richard Brindley and Tom Eastman is yet to be confirmed, with the start of the new League Two season less than six weeks away.

McGreal added: “We got huge momentum at the end of last season and we want to take that positivity right the way through pre-season and into the new season.

“Our players will get courted and have been courted throughout the season.

“We know where we’re at – we’ve just missed out on the play-offs but we don’t want to break the squad up because we feel that we have a buzz and something good about the place at the minute.

“Players will seek what they think is best for themselves and hopefully we can keep them here.

“It’s a short career but we’re a great club and we’re a club that’s looking to move forward and build on the foundations that we built, last season.”

Colchester have announced they will host League One club Gillingham in a pre-season friendly at the Community Stadium on Friday, July 28, kick-off 7.45pm.