DGNO1

and Steve Bruce said:

Steve Bruce, the Wigan Athletic manager, has launched a scathing attack on Manchester City and accused them of "disgusting" behaviour for their treatment of Wilson Palacios.

By Neil Johnston Published: 11:00PM GMT 27 Jan 2009

Dirty tricks: City used Wilson Palacios (left) as a bargaining chip to sign Craig Bellamy according to Wigan manager Steve Bruce Photo: GETTY IMAGES

Bruce claimed City had no intention of signing Palacios, the Honduras midfielder, when they approached Wigan for permission to talk to the player earlier this month.

Instead he has accused Wigan's north west rivals of hatching a plot to use Palacios, who has since signed for Tottenham for £14 million, to sign Craig Bellamy from West Ham United.

Bruce believes that City struck a "gentleman's agreement" with Tottenham over Palacios and deliberately stepped aside on the understanding that the London club did not pursue their interest in Bellamy.

That cleared the way for Tottenham, who had earmarked Bellamy as a January signing, to clinch Palacios's signature after they also offered him an improved contract after the player rejected their original personal terms of £20,000-a-week.

Bruce could not hide his anger on Tuesday at City's behaviour and accused them of making Wigan the innocent victims of a dirty tricks cam paign ultimately aimed at landing Bellamy.

"They had no intention of signing Palacios. They used the boy as a weapon and used our club as a vehicle just to get Bellamy," claimed Bruce, whose side entertain Liverpool on Wednesday night.

"I have to say Manchester City's behaviour was absolutely disgusting.

"If they had not come in a week last Friday and unsettled the boy, he would have signed a contract for us.

"The player would have signed. He was wobbling and wasn't sure about going to London.

"We had offered him a contract and he was on the verge of signing that contract. We even went as far as to have the papers drawn up.

"Then Manchester City ring him and it's a different ball game.

"It's a total joke. They took the p*ss out of us to be honest.

"They've shown a lack of respect for this football club and the player himself."

I hope spurs finish 3rd now, would be hilarious!

No it wouldn't.

Spurs will struggle in the qualifiers if they get someone like Lyon, not sure if they'll be seeded?

It depends on who else are in the draw. I don't know the exact co-efficients or what not, but from what I remember, there is a possibility of Spurs being seeded due to a couple of decent UEFA Cup runs in the last five years, but it'll be swayed heavily on who qualifies from Spain, Italy and France.

I don't see anything in your recent European history to suggest you will be seeded SS, from what I recall Everton had a similar record and look what happened to them.

Everton had no recent european history when they got CL so they weren't seeded and it was done differently then. Mind you Arsenal got Celtic last year and they'd probably beat spurs.

Thought Spurs looked pretty good today. They seem very predictable though. Kranjcar, whenever on the ball, did the same move every single time to try and get away from his man. In the 2nd half Petrov and NRC became wise to it and he just didn't play many good passes due to lack of space. Huddlestone just shoots, Lennon has to beat his man to be succesful as his crossing is still very poor. Didn't really notice Palacios. Though their left back had a decent game, can't really recall Milner having the beating of him. Nice finish from Thierry Dawson.

Think a draw would have been fair given the performance, we defended well and the goal they scored shouldn't have stood, but their attacking play over the game justified the point.

I thought we were lucky to get a point, in the 2nd half I don't recall us having a shot on target.

Wow. We all joked about it, but they've actually done it!

The whole 9 goals

I'd have called it "As Good as it Gets" but each to their own.

I was mocking a spud I know and he reckons they release a DVD of all their games, even the ones they lose :shock: I suppose that's why they are one of the richest clubs in England

Spurs won again last night

The Bentley transfer will be completed in the next few days and I don't think we'll be happy with the outcome.