JIM Magilton last night revealed he has a contingency plan if he fails to land Francis Jeffers - but he is confident he will not need to use it.Magilton admits to being interested in free agents Malcolm Christie and Pablo Counago, but so far he has made no contact with either about signing them.

By Derek Davis

JIM Magilton last night revealed he has a contingency plan if he fails to land Francis Jeffers - but he is confident he will not need to use it.

Magilton admits to being interested in free agents Malcolm Christie and Pablo Counago, but so far he has made no contact with either about signing them.

He said: “Malcolm Christie is someone I have always liked and if the Frannie deal doesn't come off, then we would be interested.

“But I have not gone for him as yet and his agent has not contacted me about him, which would suggest a deal has already been done elsewhere for him.”

Former Town favourite Counago has been released by Malaga after hitting just 10 goals in two seasons with the Spanish side.

Magilton said: “I'm a big fan of Pablo, and if his agent got in touch I would have a conversation with him, but at the moment there has been no contact at all.”

The Blues boss is prepared to wait patiently to land Jeffers, who has already promised not to go to any other Championship club other than Ipswich if given the choice.

Magilton accepts there will be interest in the former Arsenal and Everton striker but so far only Coventry City have had joined Ipswich Town in making a bid, which was rejected over the weekend by Blackburn Rovers who are holding out for £1m.

No Premiership clubs have expressed an interest and Magilton is confident that Rovers, and Jeffers, will wait until Town get the money from the much-anticipated Darren Bent move from Charlton.

Magilton said: “I'm sure clubs will make bids for Frannie but I'm not panicking over that. We have made our bid and Blackburn will be waiting on the Benty deal to go through.

“Darren's transfer is inevitable so we just have to be patient.

“We can't stop speculation surrounding Frannie Jeffers because he is a good player but if we lose out on him it won't be for the want of trying. If that happens then it is important we have other irons in the fire.

“We have some money to play with but the Jeffers deal does depend on the Benty deal going through.

“The worst case scenario is that Benty goes to Arsenal on loan, which might be a possibility, then we wouldn't get anything - but it seems Tottenham are still favourites and we just have to wait.”

Spurs are in pole position to land the England striker after he rejected a move to West Ham, but Charlton are holding out for £17m.

Liverpool have shown interest but don't appear to want to pay that much and Arsenal, Newcastle United and Manchester City are all reported to be flirting with the idea of pouncing.