Preparations for next season are already underway at the Abbey

Cambridge United boss Jimmy Quinn has begun preparations for next season by releasing five players.

Courtney Pitt, Mark Peters, Leo Fortune-West, Dan Chillingworth and Michael Hyem have all left the club.

Quinn told BBC Radio Cambridgeshire: "I think where we need to go forward now is to get some of the younger players in and around the team."

"You look at Exeter's team and you look at Aldershot's team and they've got a lot of young players."

Interview: Cambridge boss Jimmy Quinn

With this in mind Quinn has agreed one-year deals with Stephen Reed, Ben Farrell and Jordan Collins, while Darren Quinton has also been offered a new short term contract.

Cambridge's most high profile departure is Courtney Pitt, who made 49 league appearances this season.

And Quinn admitted he would have liked to have retained the pacy wide-man but he was restricted by budget constraints.

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"Courtney's done well but he's got a baby on the way and I think the deal he was looking for would probably be more than we can afford to give him," he said.

Forward Lee McEvilly is another player not to be offered a deal for next season following the end of his spell on loan from Accrington Stanley.

McEvilly is now out of contract at Stanley but Quinn has said he wants to explore other options.

"It's a financial thing, we need to get people in for the right sort of money.

"Getting a couple of strikers in is a priority but it depends on what's available, I'm looking for something a little bit different."

Quinn is yet to decide on the future of fellow forward Magno Vieira who has been on loan from Crawley since March.