Spurs get Palacios in 14 million pound deal

Tottenham finally won their battle to wrest highly-rated Honduran midfielder Wilson Palacios away from Wigan on Wednesday after the two clubs agreed a fee believed to be around 14 million pounds.

Wigan had turned down a ten million pound offer earlier this month but manager Steve Bruce had been resigned to losing the 24-year-old in the event of Spurs coming back with a higher bid.

Palacios followed Bruce from Birmingham to Wigan last year and has since enhanced his reputation with the Lancashire club establishing itself firmly in the top half of the Premier League table.

Spurs boss Harry Redknapp believes Palacios will add a bit of extra steel to a midfield that has been overrun too easily, too often this season.

“He will come in here and get after it and play aggressively,” Redknapp said. “He will work and close and run. I feel that we need a bit of that around the place.

“Palacios is a player I have liked since I first saw him, and he has the ability to go on to become a top, top player.

“I just like the way he plays. He is an all-round modern midfielder – he gets after it, he is box-to-box.

“I speak to people who have played against him, like Frank Lampard, and no-one has had an easy game against him. He is after you all the time.”

Redknapp would also like to bring in a striker after missing out on Craig Bellamy, who has joined Manchester City from West Ham, and has also been linked to Inter Milan centreback Marco Materazzi and Chelsea’s back-up goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini.