Spurs ready to clinch Palacios deal

(GETTY IMAGES)

Tottenham Hotspur will close the deal today for Wilson Palacios after the Wigan midfielder travelled to London last night. Daniel Levy, the Spurs chairman, will negotiate personal terms with the Honduras midfielder having agreed a £14m deal for the player with Wigan.

Palacios, 24, was almost lost to Tottenham on Friday night when Manchester City made an inquiry about the player, as revealed in The Independent on Saturday. However, City eventually agreed to stand aside in exchange for Spurs ending their interest in Craig Bellamy. Despite reports yesterday that Palacios was having second thoughts about a move to Spurs, the club were still confident that the deal would happen. He was offered a new deal by Wigan before the weekend but turned it down.

Now Tottenham turn their thoughts to a striker with Levy looking outside the Premier League and across Europe for a suitable player. There is an acceptance at the club that they are going to have to look at some of the less well-known options who have been offered to them this month.

Spurs have not ended their interest in the Sunderland striker Kenwyne Jones but are more pessimistic now about persuading Sunderland to sell him. Levy has promised Redknapp that he will do everything he can to get his manager another striker as well as Jermain Defoe, however it is unlikely that there will be anyone in place before the end of the week.

Ledley King's injury is not as serious as first thought – he has a slight hamstring strain rather than a tear. The Tottenham goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes, who has a groin problem that has prevented him from taking goal-kicks, said that he believed that Spurs had the necessary quality to avoid relegation this season. "Everyone is very confident in the dressing room, we believe we can win more games and make sure Tottenham climb the table," he said. "My message is believe in us because we have good players here and we know in many games we haven't played very well," Gomes said. "Everyone has confidence in the dressing room. Who knows who can climb up the league, but we all have confidence in getting up the table."

Despite the impending loss of Palacios, Wigan midfielder Lee Cattermole insists the team will bounce back from successive defeats in Manchester and prove they are worthy of their place in the Premier League's top 10.

Saturday's 1-0 reverse at the City of Manchester Stadium followed just three days after an identical scoreline against United at Old Trafford. Prior to that the team had won six out of seven in the league, a run which lifted them to seventh in the table. "The attitude [against Manchester City] was brilliant and if we show attitude like that in all of our games we will be unlucky not to come away with three points," he said. "You see what people are saying about us at the minute. People are taking notice and respecting the fact they won't have an easy game against us. It works both ways because it means teams get more up for it than they would in the past."