IPSWICH Town would have to pay money to sign 27-year-old Spanish centre back triallist Cesar Navas, who has impressed Blues boss Jim Magilton in training.

By Elvin King

IPSWICH Town would have to pay money to sign 27-year-old Spanish centre back triallist Cesar Navas, who has impressed Blues boss Jim Magilton in training.

Navas, who is due to face Blue Square Premier (formerly Conference) Crawley Town tonight, has one year left on his contract with Malaga.

Magilton is looking for quality players to strengthen his squad, with the back line top of his current priority list.

“We will have a look at Cesar tonight, and take it from there,” said Magilton. “I have been impressed with what I have seen from the lad in training.”

Navas will be joined at Crawley by French right back Arsene Menassou, who has been on trial now for over a week.

Menassou, 19, has been released by Le Havre, who play in the French Ligue 1. But there would be a compensation payment if Town wanted to sign the teenager who is keen to move to English football.

Magilton, who is eager to see how Menassou performs tonight, is happy to play non-league opposition in his pre-season build-up.

He said: “We have played a few teams from the Blue Square Premier because we know we are going to get a tough game.

“The problem with going abroad is that it is far too easy to get caught in a false sense of what level the squad is at.

“Playing sides like Crawley is a real test, which you might not get playing one of these sides abroad.

“We have played well in patches, but I certainly want us to improve on the performances in recent games. The team is only getting used to each other at the moment and finding the right balance.”

Young defender Michael Synott will have a chance tonight to show what he can do with Magilton keen to loan out his youngsters. Ian Miller's move to Darlington until January has still not been finalised and nor has Sammy Moore's loan one-month switch Terry Butcher's Brentford. But they could be confirmed today.

“We have other young players here that I want to see play first team football, so hopefully we can arrange for two or three of them to go out on loan,” said Magilton.