Palacios to Spurs

[blacky]

Palacios is a good player but not what I would have thought Spurs need. Looks like Harry is continuing the ancient Spurs tradition of trying to fix imaginary problems and ignoring the blatant frailties in the team.

I would have thought Spurs like Arsenal are lacking a commanding figure in the middle of the park. Palacios could be that player for them.

[dww]

I would have thought Spurs like Arsenal are lacking a commanding figure in the middle of the park. Palacios could be that player for them.

See I don't think he is disciplined enough. he is a fighter but his instincts always seem to me to be to go forward rather than to defend of keep possession. I think that there is a danger that he is a slightly more strong tackling Zakora. To my mind the important part of the player Spurs need is that they have to be a platform for the attacking midfielders they have as their obvious strength. Palacios has been part of a relatively flat midfield at Wigan and I think they will end up still with too much space between their midfield and defense.

[Parm]

bloody crazy price for him.

[DannyMan2006]

Excellent player and is exactly the right player for Spurs.

Having said that there are reports of a late Man Utd bid, though the press could be confusing him with Antonio Valencia.

[Reece]

Tottenham have agreed a deal with Wigan to sign Wilson Palacios for about £14m.

The midfielder has passed a medical after agreeing terms and the transfer will be completed once the Honduras international receives a work permit.

Palacios, 24, has been at Wigan since January 2008 after signing from Deportivo Olimpia on a three-and-a-half year deal for £1m.

He had been with Wigan boss Steve Bruce at Birmingham for a loan spell before rejoining him at the JJB Stadium.


606: DEBATE
Give your reaction to the Palacios transfer
It is understood that Palacios had reservations about moving to London from the north west, where he was settled.

But Spurs boss Harry Redknapp said he was confident the deal would go through and has now got his man.

Wigan boss Bruce said: "The club record transfer fee will be smashed if the deal goes through, but that was never mine or the club's motivation here.

"The club is not in the business of trying to make a profit on players. I want to build a winning team here and keep my best players together."

"We did everything we could as a club to keep Wilson. We sat down with him last week and offered him a very good new deal, and tried to convince him his interests were best served by staying here at Wigan Athletic.

"However, I'm a big believer in not standing in the way of players' careers, as long as the terms are right for our club and I wish him all the best.

"He has served the club well in short time with us and has been a credit to both himself and the club.

"It is no wonder we have some big clubs enquiring about our players because they have done very well this season. I always said that my biggest challenge this month was to keep the squad together, whilst trying to add to it at the same time.

"There are always tough decisions to make, but it's my job to make what I see as the right choices for the long term good of Wigan Athletic."

[Joe King]

Weird decision to go to Spurs, after all Wigan look the more likely to improve. I'm sure if he had stayed until the end of the season, he could have attracted an even bigger club - since he is at a relatively smaller club therefore less expectations.

I can understand the reasoning from Redknapp to go for him. On Sunday against Portsmouth, they had the midfield pairing of Zokora and Modric - hardly the most toughest pairing in the Premiership. So in that instance, some muscle needed and he has got that in Palacios however his technical ability is a bit suspect. At Wigan, more or less, Cattermole would do the distributive side from deep positions (I have been very impressed with his work this season) Palacios as Looprevil commented does win a lot of the second balls in the attacking third of the pitch, so if thats what he is good at and Spurs need a holding player, they are still have the same problems. They still need a holding player.

[dww]

I like Palacios technically I just don't see how he will balance the midfield as he is a midfield enforcer who tends to play highish up the pitch as you say. I would think that a priority should be getting Modric, Lennon, Bentley etc into the game more and that would require someone deeper as either playmaker or enforcer to my mind. Maybe Redknapp thinks a Huddlestone - Palacios pairing will do that but it doesn't look great to me.

[Joe King]

I like Palacios technically I just don't see how he will balance the midfield as he is a midfield enforcer who tends to play highish up the pitch as you say. I would think that a priority should be getting Modric, Lennon, Bentley etc into the game more and that would require someone deeper as either playmaker or enforcer to my mind. Maybe Redknapp thinks a Huddlestone - Palacios pairing will do that but it doesn't look great to me.

Redknapp has hardly played Huddlestone which doesn't give me any encourage to believe he will do so in the future. With Redknapp's soft centre, it might be useful to change to a five man midfield with Huddlestone and Palacios playing deep with Pavlyuchenko in his more familiar role which is to play his back to goal and allow Defoe to roam forward. Redknapp has always been a 4-4-2 man besides the odd occasion this season where he went 3-5-2 but it will interesting to see who drops out from the midfield.

[dww]

Redknapp has hardly played Huddlestone which doesn't give me any encourage to believe he will do so in the future. With Redknapp's soft centre, it might be useful to change to a five man midfield with Huddlestone and Palacios playing deep with Pavlyuchenko in his more familiar role which is to play his back to goal and allow Defoe to roam forward. Redknapp has always been a 4-4-2 man besides the odd occasion this season where he went 3-5-2 but it will interesting to see who drops out from the midfield.

Not at Pompey last season - they played a 4-3-3 based system.

[Joe King]

Not at Pompey last season - they played a 4-3-3 based system.

After or before Benjani left?

[dww]

After or before Benjani left?

Both at times. At the start of the season it was basically their only formation. They were notably worse in the league in the second half of the season too.

I agree that he will probably try and make a 4-4-2 based system though at Spurs in the long run. Which is one of the reasons I think that Palacios is a bad choice if he wants to actually challenge for Europe in the long term.

[The Erectile Banana]

I'm still struggling with the fact that Spurs are paying £14M for a player who only cost Wigan £1M (I think that's correct) a year ago.

He's certainly a decent player but the fee is incredibly excessive. When coupled with the £15M they shelled out on Defoe it looks like Spurs are intent on giving Citeh a run for their money.

[magicalbarnes]

If Spurs go down (which i hope they do), i think they wll set a record for the most expensivley assembled team to go down.