Colchester United head coach John McGreal insists the club’s out-of-contract players have been made “good offers” to stay at the Weston Homes Community Stadium.

But the U’s boss has warned they may have to play a waiting game before learning whether or not they are staying put.

A total of ten players have been offered fresh terms by Colchester, including Richard Brindley, Chris Porter, George Elokobi, Tom Eastman, Lewis Kinsella and Drey Wright.

Kane Vincent-Young, Dean Brill, Charley Edge and Diaz Wright have also been presented with the opportunity to stay at the League Two club.

The out-of-contract players given the option to stay at Colchester have a month to decide whether or not to remain in north Essex.

And McGreal admits the U’s may have to be patient, in their quest to retain their services.

McGreal said: “Hopefully they’ll sign – we’ve put good offers to them.

“We’ve had to give them an offer by the third Saturday in May, so we’ve got that out nice and early.

“It’s that time of year again when you play the waiting game.

“You just want to get things done but a lot of players and their agents go away at this time of year, so nothing really does get done at this moment in time.

“It’s going to be about negotiations and then once we know where we are with our own players, we’ll look to move forward.

“If the players we’ve offered terms to in our squad don’t sign, then there will be room for new faces and we’ve also got one or two irons in the fire ourselves.

“They would have to be replaced and that’s how we’re looking at it.

“That’s what we’ve offered our boys and we’ve made it clear that we want them to stay at the football club.

“There will be negotiations to put in place and that’s where Tony (Humes) will come in and do his work and try and get those over the line.

“We’re a club that’s trying to move forward and most of the players have had brilliant seasons.

“We thank the players for that but you also have to look at what the football club has brought to them.

“It would be brilliant to get the boys we’ve offered deals to over the line as quickly as possible.”