Tottenham are poised to sign midfielder Wilson Palacios from Wigan after Latics boss Steve Bruce said a deal had been “virtually agreed”.
The 24-year-old has been with Wigan for just over a year after he joined from Deportivo Olimpia on a three-and-a-half year deal for £1m in January 2008.
But the club have opted to sell the Honduran, with a deal of around £14m thought to have been agreed.
“The clubs have virtually agreed a fee. It’s how it will be paid,” said Bruce.
“It is up to us as a selling club to demand what we want in terms of how we should be paid and how we should be structured. We will see what happens.
“Wilson is still with us and I’m preparing him to play against Manchester City tomorrow. That’s the situation at the moment but we will see what happens in the next few hours.”
Tottenham had a bid of £10m turned down on Wednesday but Bruce admitted at the time that the club would not stand in Palacios’s way if a bigger offer came in.
And he said on Friday: “You look at what we bought him for and what we might sell him for and it is quite remarkable.
“As a manager you don’t want to lose one of your best players. The last thing I want to do is dismantle my team. Wilson has come from nowhere to being one of the best midfield players in the country.
“But of course we have to be realistic, which I am. We are Wigan Athletic and if it is the wish of the player (to leave) all these things have to be taken into consideration.
“Spurs can offer bigger contracts than us. They can blow us out of the water but it would be like losing my right arm.”
