Forget Kaka: The Midfielder Manchester City Need Is Wilson Palacios

Kaka. World Footballer of the year 2007. Ballon D'Or 2007. Serie A Player of the year '04 and '07. Not the player Manchester City need though.

The one many deem as the best around, and certainly place in the same bracket as global creative luminaries Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, is on the brink of a sport-shattering transfer to a club two points from the drop zone and four from the foot of the table.

But whilst he would grace anyone's team sheet on a Saturday, he is not the man to save City from a messy relegation scrap.

The man that could, though, is about to join another team that falls in the bracket of down-at-the-bottom-but-really-shouldn't-be-given-the-quality-on-paper. Harry Redknapp, notorious wheeler-dealer and relegation survivor on more than one occasion, has earmarked a man he sees as crucial in providing a platform for a charge up the table.

This South American ace has had trials with Arsenal, yet found his feet in the Midlands.

The man in question does not play in front of 100,000 every week in a world famous stadium, but more 19,000 in a half-empty ground in Lancashire.

The man City need but Tottenham are looking set to land is Wilson Palacios.

Commanding one-tenth the fee of his world-famous counterpart, Palacios has quietly impressed all who have watched him this season with his battling displays, vision and sheer athleticism in the engine room of the Wigan midfield. Manager Steve Bruce is resigned to losing him, saying that for him to exit the club would be "like losing my right arm." Here is a player that knows how to fight.

Wigan have been revitalised this season and, whilst Valencia and Zaki have stolen the headlines, Palacios has been a crucial part of the Latics stunning rise to the verge of a UEFA cup slot. Wigan's defensive steel is not found merely in a reinvigorated Chris Kirkland and Titus Bramble, but in the Honduran master in the middle of the park.

Manchester City's problems have not been puttting the ball in the net, rather picking it up out of it. If the table was based on goals scored, City would be second behind Chelsea. Every match won this campaign has been by at least three goals and their goal difference is the best outside of the top five, yet they find themselves in 16th. Their solution? Buy a world-class forward. Hmm.

Their back four were exceptional last season, with Richard Dunne and Micah Richards heralded as one of the great centre-back pairings in the league. These players don't lose their skill overnight: it is confidence that is causing them to haemorrhage goals, and this confidence is evapourating as their midfield bomb forward to leave them horribly exposed at the back.

City and Spurs are two clubs whose defensive fragility is costing them dearly at the moment. Neither club has a truly great defensive midfielder and Palacious could fit that bill perfectly, with proven Premiership pedigree and great ability to boot. For a player that cost Wigan £1m twelve months ago, even £14m could be a steal.

Perhaps Manchester City shouldn't be chasing Hollywood names and rather be focusing on where their team is weakest: covering a defence woefully low in confidence. This more than anything would get them closer to achieving survival, let alone a Champions League place.